Sixty years after winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Anita in West Side Story, 90-year-old Rita Moreno has the chance to pull off a unique Oscars double in Steven Spielberg’s electrifying remake of the 1961 movie classic.
With nominations for the Oscars due to be announced on 8 February 2022, Moreno is quoted at 9/1 in early betting in the same Supporting Actress category she won in 1962, this time for the specially-written role of Valentina, the Puerto Rican widow of Doc, who ran the general store in the original.
Ironically, the biggest danger to Moreno comes from within… Ariana DeBose, who plays Maria’s great friend Anita this time, is the hot favourite at 6/4 to win the same Supporting gong and an even hotter one (11/10) to pick up the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress – Musical or Comedy.
The Globes, which are voted on by 87 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, precede the Oscar nominations and are coming up on 9 January whereas the Oscars are decided by the 8,700 qualifying members of the Academy of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.
Ironically, Moreno at 90 sings ‘Somewhere’ in her own voice in the current re-imagining whereas at 30 some of her vocals as Anita were dubbed by big band singer Betty Wand (on ‘A Boy Like That’) – Wand also sang for Leslie Caron in the Oscar-winning Gigi – and by Marni Nixon (on parts of the ‘Tonight’ ensemble number as the range was too high for Moreno or Wand).
The original West Side Story, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, mopped up ten Oscars, including Best Picture, the most by any movie musical, so Spielberg’s has a particularly hard act to follow.
Despite the new movie’s lack of box office success in the States and it being panned by several influential critics, it is odds-on at 4/6 to lift the Best Film – Musical or Comedy at the Globes and 3/1 second favourite (behind Belfast) for the Best Picture Oscar.
Yet Spielberg has drifted to 7/1 for Best Director where Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog) and Kenneth Branagh (Belfast) are rated the two to beat.
With favourite La La Land losing out to Moonlight in 2017 (despite being mistakenly announced by Warren Beatty as the winner!), Chicago in 2002 remains the only musical to have won Best Picture Oscar this century. The odds are stacked against West Side Story as no film has ever won twice.
Musicals also have the market leaders in the Golden Globes’ Best Actor and Best Actress – Musical or Comedy sections with Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick … Boom!) and Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) both odds-on. One of Garfield’s rivals is In The Heights’ lead Anthony Ramos but he is an outsider.
Also of interest to lovers of musical theatre is the name of Hannah Waddingham, Olivier-nominated in the past for Spamalot and A Little Night Music and a star of the Regent’s Park Open Air Into the Woods in 2015.
The statuesque London actress-singer, who featured in the TV blockbuster Game of Thrones, is one of the Globe favourites at 3/1 for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series as the imperious owner of fictional Premier League football club AFC Richmond in the popular Apple+ show Ted Lasso.
Jeremy Chapman
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