‘West Side Story’ banned in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait due to LGBTQ character
At least two countries will not screen the new “West Side Story” remake, reportedly due to it featuring a nonbinary actor.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have not granted the live-action film a release certificate, preventing it from being seen in those countries, according to The Wrap. The movie was initially targeted to open in Saudi Arabia on Dec. 9, just ahead of its North America release on Dec. 10.
Meanwhile, censors in other Middle Eastern nations — Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — reportedly requested cuts to the new film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical. However, Walt Disney and 20th Century Studios have decided not to make the cuts, an insider told The Wrap.
Neither Disney nor 20th Century immediately returned The Post’s request for comment.
The studios reportedly do anticipate that the film will be released in some other countries in the Middle East.
The reason for the ban of the New York-set “Romeo and Juliet” take has not been specified, but The Wrap suggested it’s due to Anybodys, a teenage character written to be transgender and played by actor Iris Menas, who identifies as nonbinary.
Saudi Arabia has previously censored numerous films on the basis of issues related to being LGBTQ, which is illegal in the country. The release of Marvel’s “Eternals,” which features a gay superhero, was recently blocked there.
Meanwhile, in New York, “West Side Story” enjoyed its world premiere on Nov. 29 — a somber affair due to Sondheim having died just days before.
“His amazing work for ‘West Side Story’ [in 1957] first put him on the map, and launched a career that would completely redraw that map, reinvent the musical and theater and create a body of work that beyond any doubt is as immortal as anything made by a mortal can be,” director Steven Spielberg said at the event in a moving tribute to the late great composer.
