REVIEW: "& Juliet" at the Shaftesbury Theatre on July 11, 2022
It probably would have helped if I actually listened to pop music for the past twenty years because the thirty tunes in this show were millennial chart toppers penned by one man, Max Martin. The Swedish mega-producer has been responsible for more #1 pop hits than anyone else except Lennon and McCartney. Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and The Backstreet Boys owe him their careers among many others. This fanciful musical comedy repurposes those songs into a heavily reimagined version of "Romeo & Juliet".
The classic tragedy is being argued by the bickering Shakespeares, the Bard and his frustrated wife Anne Hathaway who doesn't understand why Juliet has to die at the end. In fact, Juliet quickly rebounds and journeys to Paris with her pals and finds love again with a prince struggling to find his own identity. Things get further complicated when Juliet's presumption of Romeo's fate turns out to be erroneous. Female empowerment and gender confusion inform the story but not more than familiar pop songs that sent the youthful audience into bubblegum delirium.
The book was written by David West Read, a veteran of "Schitt's Creek", and the show could've used some of that sitcom's dark edginess. The rambunctious cast was game with Cassidy Janson the standout as the beleaguered Anne. I have to say the cast's energy came across as a bit packaged with the choreography befitting music videos you'd see on Vimeo. The show is coming to Broadway in October where stateside audiences can relive the same pop songs they've been listening to on their own AirPods.
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