& Juliet Is Exactly What Broadway Needs
Since the pandemic shut down Broadway for 18 months, the industry has been struggling to regain its footing. Classics and fan favorites like “The Music Man” and “The Phantom of The Opera” closed in 2023, and new original shows closed within months of their opening day. Yet “& Juliet” played its 400th show in just under a year at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre to a nearly packed audience at 7:30 pm on a Wednesday. What makes this show a success in a bleak time for theater? It’s funny, heartwarming, empowering, and has a soundtrack full of classic pop songs on all our playlists already.
“& Juliet” is a jukebox musical featuring songs by legendary pop producer and songwriter Max Martin. The show sees William Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, rewriting the classic play “Romeo & Juliet,” where Juliet doesn’t die at the end, but instead travels to Paris to find true love and independence. Most jukebox musicals fall into the trap of including a popular song for the notoriety while letting the storytelling slip, but “& Juliet” lets the songs push the story further. Juliet swings from a glittery rainbow chandelier in a club as her first taste of independence to Kesha’s “Blow.” “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” becomes an earnest discussion of gender identity between Juliet and her non-binary best friend May. But perhaps the best use of a pop hit is when Juliet turns Romeo away to the tune of “Since U Been Gone” securing laughter from the audience by just the opening riff.
At its core, “& Juliet” is a musical about women finding their voice. Early in the show, Betsy Wolfe as Anne Hathaway asks Shakespeare “Are you a strong enough man to write a strong woman?” and many jabs at the ridiculousness of a young woman killing herself over a man she’s known for less than a week follows. On this stage, both Anne and Juliet find their own aspirations, separate from the man they’ve been tied to throughout history.
In the last song before intermission, Romeo and Juliet sing “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi, leaving you with the lyrics “I ain’t gonna live forever, I just want to live while I’m alive” as the lights come back on. While no one lives forever, art does. Especially Shakespeare, whose works have taken on many lives since he wrote them, including movies like “She’s The Man and 10 Things I Hate About You,” songs like “Love Story” by Taylor Swift and “Ophelia” by The Lumineers, and Broadway musicals like “West Side Story” and now “& Juliet.” In a world already full of so much darkness and tragedy, ”& Juliet” is the new life of Shakespeare and Broadway we’ve needed.
Article by Skylar Elizabeth, Editorial Assistant, PhotoBook Magazine
Tearsheets by Alexa Dyer, Graphic Designer, PhotoBook Magazine
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