A Girl Like That! Jennifer Lopez Stars in West Side Story, Sort Of

Rita Moreno owns the part in the movies. Chita Rivera's work in the original stage production is the stuff of legend. This week, Karen Olivo’s claimed the role for herself on Broadway. Now Jennifer Lopez rules the web as Anita, the fiesty Latina immigrant who sauces up West Side Story.

Lopez is the star of “West Side Story Revisited,” a glossy portfolio currently featured on Vanity Fair’s website. Shot by veteran VF photographer Mark Seliger, the pictorial recreates several scenes from the classic 1961 movie, which was adapted from 1957’s landmark Laurents-Bernstein-Sondheim musical, which itself was based loosely on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. All of the story’s iconic locales—the streets, the gym, the rooftop dance-off—are represented, along with a requisite shot of J-Lo’s incomparable posterior.

Lopez told Vanity Fair's Jim Windolf that she watched the West Side Story movie "37 times" as a kid, and was attracted to the part of Anita. "I never wanted to be that wimpy Maria, who sits around pining for her guy," she said. "I wanted to be Anita, who danced her way to the top."

The new revival of West Side Story opened on March 19 and is currently running at the Palace Theatre.