It was raining in Newark on Friday night.

But these showers weren’t the ones forecast for the windy evening. And Newark wasn’t exactly Newark, either.

Thanks to a simple bit of movie magic, a span of Washington Street near Bank Street channeled a department store of yesteryear and a damp night in 1950s New York as part of Steven Spielberg’s forthcoming adaptation of “West Side Story.”

A truck emblazoned with “Gimbels” peeled off down the road, after which three sprinklers were hoisted above the set. The fake rain was used for a scene in which actors walk out of a loading dock at 225 Washington with umbrellas as decade-appropriate cars pass in the street.

“Make it rain, make it rain!" said a member of the crew as the water pelted the street below. It wasn’t long before the same scene started again, and again, and again, punctuated by the requisite “rolling!”

Spielberg’s production, a new adaptation of the 1957 musical, settled in for a long night in Newark on Friday after an extended period filming in Paterson, where storefronts had been completely transformed for the movie. The latest work started late Friday afternoon and was scheduled to wrap early Saturday morning. The movie has also been filming in New York.

Cars on the set of "West Side Story" Friday night in Newark. The movie is set in 1950s New York.Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Each time the filmmakers pressed play on the rain scene, a small procession of actresses wearing patterned dresses and headscarves, a yellow retro taxi and ’50s cars moved down the street. After every take, the cars quickly returned to starting position and the actresses went back inside the loading dock.

“West Side Story” may be a musical, but the soundtrack to the scene in Newark was the creaking of street signs across from the Prudential building.

The crew set up the shoot by applying a yellow gel filter to light fixtures, ostensibly to mimic the soft glow of streetlights. As the actual rain and wind arrived and subsided, actors wore clear ponchos over their vintage suits and outfits.

“Rachel’s going back to the city,” a voice announced on a crew member’s walkie talkie as actors departed the scene at about 10 p.m.

Clifton’s Rachel Zegler will make her film debut as Maria in Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” which is due out in theaters on Dec. 18, 2020. In 2017, she played Maria in a BergenPAC Performing Arts School production of “West Side Story.”

Zegler, 18, an alumna of Immaculate Conception High School in Lodi, stars opposite Ansel Elgort (“Baby Driver,” “The Goldfinch”), 25, who plays Tony.

In one scene, actors try to get out of the "rain" near a loading dock. Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

For Spielberg’s adaptation, the musical from Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein got a new script from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner. Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar for playing “Anita” in the 1961 “West Side Story” film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, returns to the story as both a producer and Valentina, an adaptation of the Doc character, who owns the store where Tony works.

Zegler has talked about the potential for the new version of “West Side Story" to right wrongs of the first movie, which cast white actors as Latinx characters. In the 2020 adaptation, Tony nominee Ariana DeBose (“Summer: The Donna Summer Musical”), who is of Afro-Puerto Rican heritage, plays Anita. David Alvarez, who is of Cuban Canadian heritage, plays Bernardo, Maria’s older brother and Anita’s boyfriend, who is the founder of the Sharks gang.

Brian d’arcy James (“Spotlight") is Spielberg’s Sgt. Krupke. Corey Stoll (“The Many Saints of Newark”) plays Lt. Schrank.

In August, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority approved almost $6.9 million in tax credits for “West Side Story." The last major movie to star Paterson and Newark was the “Sopranos” prequel film “The Many Saints of Newark,” which filmed in the spring and will be released in theaters on Sept. 25, 2020, just months before “West Side Story.”

After midnight on Saturday, “West Side Story” had plans to film at the National Newark Building on Broad Street. In April, the 1940s-set HBO limited series “The Plot Against America” filmed at the neoclassical-style building, once the tallest in New Jersey. Kenneth Gifford, director of the Newark Office of Film and Television, previously told NJ Advance Media that the building would stand in for a department store in the film.

Another retail chain, Bamberger’s, which closed in 1986, was headquartered in Newark. The flagship store opened on Market Street in 1912 and eventually spanned a whole block. Newark was also home to Hahne and Co. on Broad Street, which now houses a Whole Foods.

A Gimbels truck plays a role in scenes for the adaptation of the musical, which is being released in 2020.Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

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