The movie theaters are open again. It’s time to get off the sofa, out of the streaming swamp, and into the cinema’s calming darkness with a vast screen, immersive audio, and a door shut against the distractions of the world. But what to see? Ridley Scott’s much anticipated fashion thriller, House of Gucci flopped miserably, though granted, it did land at an unfortunate time. We’ll skip it for now. Instead, I’m going to recommend a film that just barely managed a premiere before the shutdown in December: Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic musical, West Side Story, now showing at Café Biografen.

The musical is one of film history’s most disputed genres. It had its heyday in the depression of the 1930’s, when people desperately needed to disappear into a magical world of song and dance. I think there are a lot of us who fell that same need right now, and perhaps it’s just the moment to let yourself slip into this reimagining of Romeo and Juliet set in the mean streets of 1950’s New York.

As with many musicals, West Side Story started as a Broadway show, but was first made into a film in 1961 with the score delivered by Leonard Bernstein. This version is not only known as one of the best musicals, but indeed one of the best films ever. So, it’s pretty brave of Spielberg -who’s never dabbled in musicals before- to try to tinker with such an absolutely gilded classic. But rumor has it that he’s gotten away with it… No matter what, I’m looking forward to catching this one – in the cinema.