Ariana DeBose Wins BAFTA for West Side Story
(© Niko Tavernise/20th Century Studios.)
West Side Story star Ariana DeBose has won the award for best performance by a supporting actress from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (better known as BAFTA).
DeBose, who has also appeared in Hamilton, Bring It On, Schmigadoon!, The Prom, and more, picked up the award at the Royal Albert Hall yesterday evening.
She played the role of Anita in the movie, which famously won Rita Moreno an Oscar when the original version of the iconic stage show first premiered. The film also won the award for Best Casting, which went to Cindy Tolan.
You can view the full list of 2022 BAFTA nominees and winners here.
With music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents, West Side Story is the multi-award-winning American take on Romeo and Juliet, with the young lovers, Tony and Maria, trapped in a feud between rival street gangs – the Sharks and the Jets. The 1961 film adaption directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins remains a classic.
DeBose is also nominated for an Oscar.
TheaterMania's review of West Side Story called DeBose, "powerful, sexy, and practically unstoppable."
