<
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/feb/21/theatre-and-pop-at-its-absolute-excess-the-broadway-hit-that-asks-what-if-juliet-just-got-on-with-it>
"It’s hard to think of a jukebox musical that has been touched by quite so many
pop stars. Since
& Juliet opened on the West End in 2019 and Broadway in
2022, Katy Perry, Adam Lambert, ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys have all come
to the show. Kelly Clarkson features on the US cast album, Jessie J on the UK
one – even Robyn and Harry Styles have come to early developments. “It was just
him, sitting in a rehearsal room – just right there, it was crazy,” says the
show’s writer, David West Read, best known for his work on
Schitt’s Creek,
while speaking with
Guardian Australia in New York.
That stars of this calibre would take such an interest makes sense given one
extra fact: every song in the show is by Sweden’s legendary hitmaker Max
Martin, who has written for almost all of them and then some.
& Juliet – which has its Australian premiere in Melbourne this month – is a
feelgood, feminist and gen Z-friendly retelling of
Romeo and Juliet that
begins when Romeo dies and asks what would happen if she just moved on. (The
answer, more or less: “Yasss, get it!”)
The show feels as much like a big pop concert as it does a piece of theatre;
its director, Luke Sheppard, describes it as “unapologetic” and “maximalist”.
There are huge numbers from Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Kesha, Perry,
Ariana Grande and Bon Jovi. There are lightning-quick costume changes, stadium
show-worthy dance breaks, more than 1,200 lights and 236 speakers. Sixty
kilograms of biodegradable confetti is shot out of cannons each month for the
production. At one point, a character swings from a chandelier. “You have
theatre and pop at its absolute excess, combining in one,” Sheppard says.
In Australia, Rob Mills will star as the cocky William Shakespeare, who opens
the show rising from the stage like the world’s biggest pop star, belting out
Backstreet Boys’ 1999 hit Larger Than Life. Shakespeare has just finished
writing Romeo and Juliet, but his wife, Anne Hathaway (played in Melbourne by
Amy Lehpamer) has notes on the ending. Perhaps instead of having a 13-year-old
stab herself to death because a melodramatic man she barely knew ate poison,
Juliet might like to … live her own life?"
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
