PREVIEW
Meet the new Jets and Sharks
The WEST SIDE STORY remake is now filming — meet the cast of (mostly) unknowns
tap-dancing their way into Steven Spielberg’s first musical WORDS JOHN NUGENT
EZRA MENAS
ANYBODYS (JETS)
Menas, a non-binary actor,
takes on the role of
Anybodys. They appeared in
a national tour of A Chorus
Line, and later this year will
star in the original cast of
Jagged Little Pill on
Broadway, a new musical
inspired by Alanis Morissette.PATRICK HIGGINS
BABY JOHN (JETS)
The youngest member of the
Jets is played by 16-year-old
Higgins. In 2016, aged 13, he
played Billy Elliot at theVenice
Theatre, Florida. Higgins was
also a Featured Singer in
Sondheim In Springtime at
John Leggio’s Center for the
Performing Arts.BEN COOK
MOUTHPIECE (JETS)
21-year-old Cook played
the title role in Billy Elliot
The Musical on Broadway in
2012, and was part of Tina
Fey’s 2018 Mean Girls
Broadway transfer. He’s
worked with Fey before,
playing a young Alec Baldwin
in a 2010 episode of 30 Rock.SEAN HARRISON
JONES
ACTION (JETS)
Jones played Samuel Seabury
in the US tour of Hamilton in
2018, and in 2014 appeared
on America’s Got Talent with
his childhood friend as
tap-dancing duo Sean &
Luke. Judge Mel B said they
“made tap cool”.MIKE FAIST
RIFF (JETS)
At 27, Faist is the oldest of the
Jets/Sharks cast. He dropped
out of drama academy and
sold tickets in Times Square
beforelanding a role in the
original cast of 2012’s
Newsies, then 2015’s Dear
Evan Hansen — earning a Tony
nomination in 2017.ANSEL ELGORT
TONY
As Tony — co-founder of the
Jets, and the Romeo to
Maria’s Juliet — 25-year-old
Elgort is the highest-profile
cast member, starring in Edgar
Wright’s Baby Driver and The
Fault In Our Stars. He’ll also
play the lead in the upcoming
adaptation of The Goldfinch.RACHEL ZEGLER
MARIA
The 17-year-old Colombian-
American high school student
beat over 30,000 other
applicants to play Maria.
Zegler was an internet star
prior to being cast; a video of
her belting out A Star Is
Born’s ‘Shallow’ has over two
million views on YouTube.ALAMY