Music & Lyrics: Max Martin & Friends
Book: David West Read
Director: Luke Sheppard
A Shakespearean jukebox musical with some of the biggest pop hits from the 90s to the present day – really, I hear you cry. On paper it shouldn’t work, but in & Juliet, it sure does.
On the urging of his wife Anne Hathaway (Lara Denning), William Shakespeare (Matt Cardle) is tasked with re-writing his great tragedy Romeo and Juliet with a happier, more crowd-pleasing ending. She asks – what if the star-crossed lovers didn’t meet such a tragic end – well Juliet anyway, and implores him to provide her with a fairer treatment – let her make her own life choices.
Anne has to fight with Will to provide Juliet with a real voice, but it’s her that provides our young heroine with a life of her own choosing. Juliet (Psalms-Nissi Myers-Reid) finds out that her beau is actually a serial cheater and all-round ass. So being the strong, young woman she is, she promptly runs off to Paris and finds herself falling straight into the arms of another young man and a relationship that’s more one of convenience than love. Can this girl ever get a break?
Thankfully, while the book by David West Read of Schitt’s Creek fame, pays proper homage to its source material, the less palatable aspects of the original have been sanitised for a 21st Century audience: our female lead is no longer a 13 year old girl but a young woman in her 20s and it addresses the quite frankly preposterous idea that any young couple would go to such extremes for one another after only knowing one another for four days. There are quotes aplenty and detail from Will and Anne’s real lives interwoven through the script.
There is a wonderfully female-centred storyline with positive queer representation throughout and a diverse cast that is reflective of Britain in the 21st Century. The best thing is the joy they radiate and love of their craft the entire ensemble conveys to the audience.
The music by Swedish hit machine Max Martin is a highlight, juxtaposed as it is into a story set in the Renaissance. Who knew that Katy Perry’s Roar, Britney’s …Baby One More Time and Backstreet Boys I Want It That Way would seamlessly fit? Surprisingly, and cleverly, the lyrics to these pop bangers and power ballads fit perfectly into the storyline. Whatever your musical tastes, the tunes are undeniably toe-tapping. There are over thirty songs included in the two and a half hour running time.
Soutra Gilmour’s colourful set is vibrantly lit, pleasing to the eye and punctuated with confetti cannons and much glitter. There’s a gloriously slick pop concert feel about the whole production.
The biggest asset of the show is its cast. Myers-Reid is a knock-out Juliet, she’s vibrant, warm and feisty with a fine set of pipes. She is wonderfully supported by the ever-watchable Sandra Marvin as Nurse Angelique, Matt Cardle is in great voice as Will, and TV medic Dr. Ranj Singh is surprisingly good as Lance. Jordan Broatch beautifully plays May with a charm and sure touch that has the crowd rooting for them from the off. In as cast as fine as this there is a total standout – Lara Denning’s Anne is as fine a musical theatre performance as you’ll ever find. Her emotional range is on full show from feisty and furious to tender and touching, her comic timing is as impeccable as her roof-raising voice.
This is high octane entertainment, it’s riotous, celebratory and joyful and an example of how to really do a jukebox musical. It knows its audience and romps along at a speed that will leave you breathless.
& Juliet proves as it says in the publicity that there’s life after Romeo, but there is also a huge market for the unlikeliest of combinations – who would have dreamt that Shakespeare and Britney could co-exist so beautifully. The entire auditorium on its feet at the end is testament to the fact the theatre-going audience is always open to something new and refreshing. More like this please.
Runs until 24 August 2024 then continues touring
The Reviews Hub Score
Irresistible
