The open set is awash with cast, lights, projections, dancing and music, setting the scene for a non-stop show.
Emmy-winning David West Read penned this musical, flipping the script on the greatest love story ever told, and asks what would happen next if Juliet (Gerardine Sacdalan) didn’t end it all over Romeo (Jack Danson)?
The action begins with Will (Oliver Tompsett) giving out the script for his latest play, delivering a synopsis. In an unexpectedly poignant jukebox musical, Anne Hathaway (Lara Denning), Shakespeare’s wife, is not impressed and asks, “what if Juliet... didn’t kill herself?”. “I mean, what do I know, but it seems like she’s got her whole life ahead of her, she’s only had one boyfriend…”—fair point. Will tries to do a rewrite, but Anne takes over. Tompsett and Janson spar over the ending of his play to the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way”. In many ways, this is a story sometimes more about their relationship than that of Juliet.
Juliet, fed up with being told what to do, decides to strike out on her own and heads 600 miles to Paris with her ‘friend’ April, who is Hathaway as she has written herself in, May a ‘guy’ who is having difficulty with his sexuality and her Nurse Angelique (Sandra Marvin) who features largely in the involved story that follows. It is a very talented cast having some exceptionally strong voices, like Sacdalan, Tompsett, Denning and Marvin.
Now I know this is all a fantasy, but I cannot see the rationale, or indeed how a 14-year-old girl goes 600 miles to find adventure around 1592, or why? How about Venice only 75 miles away? While the set is phenomenal, was bringing on an Eiffel Tower and Metro sign, not around in the 1590s, necessary to ‘establish location? I know these may be small details to many and did not seem to lessen the audience enjoyment, but I found them distracting while adding nothing to the story.
I say this as I assume it was set around the 1590s when Shakespeare wrote the play as he and his wife were in it. The generic costumes (Paloma Young) suited the ambiguous period perfectly, mixing waisted corsets with denim, sequins and medieval styles, a wonderful mix of styles not exactly set in any period but a colourful visual delight. The intriguing storyline involves many twists and turns, love, betrayal, lies, newfound romance, sexuality, lost lovers reunited and more; you have to stay awake to keep up, not that the sound levels would allow you to nod off.
It even has Dr Ranj Singh making his musical theatre debut playing Lance, François’s (Kyle Cox) father—one of the country’s most recognised and well-loved medics and TV presenters, with a career ranging from NHS doctor to author to musical theatre star. He was a BBC Strictly Come Dancing contestant in 2018. In 2021, his performance on ITV's All Star Musicals received high praise from the judges. He starred in his own sold-out West End show Scrubs to Sparkles. A man of many talents. He said“I am absolutely overjoyed to be making my musical theatre debut in & Juliet, a show I've been a fan of since it first opened. Bring it on!”
This is a multi-faceted show in many ways, lighting and videos (Liam Sayer, Anna Marshall and Josh Hopkinnson), sound (Ewan Munro and Oliver Wareham) set (Soutra Gilmour) and choreographer (Jennifer Weber) all working their socks off every minute. Director Luke Sheppard is good at juggling many plates apart from the actors. He effortlessly uses the cast to strike and reset numerous locations, keeping the flow going. Max Martin, songwriter savant, takes this wry premise, covers it in glitter and runs with it. Every moment of the production is soundtracked by one of Martin’s power-pop hits, second only to McCartney in having written more number one singles than anyone else.
& Juliet has been performed on four continents since its world première in September 2019, beginning at the Manchester Opera House. The show premièred in July 2022 in Toronto, where it broke box office records and played to standing-room-only audiences, before heading to Broadway, where it again broke box office records. The German premiere in October marks the first production with a book translated into a different language. If the packed house standing ovation is anything to go by, one can see why.
An action-packed night full of twists, turns, thrills, lights and music to entertain you for two and half hours—a mega show!