It’s been a very trying and tiring two years, and sometimes here at Starburst Towers we just want to spend the evening being entertained by an event which is joyous, and uplifting, and which appeals to our nostalgic desire to spend time immersed in the music of our formative years. & Juliet, currently running in London’s West End Theatreland, meets all of these requirements, as it wraps you into this warm hug of a musical.
& Juliet has been running since February 2019 in London, having started its theatrical journey prior to that in Starburst’s home city of Manchester. Having survived the pandemic and the forced closure of the theatres (an event which had not occurred since Shakespeare was alive some four hundred years ago), the production has recently welcomed several new cast members – this is a regular occurrence on long-running shows, especially musicals, and Starburst was invited along to a recent performance to celebrate this milestone.
The plot, such as it is, is that William Shakespeare, portrayed here as something akin to a rockstar, has written a new play – ‘Romeo and Juliet’ – and it’s receiving it’s debut this evening. Will’s wife, Anne Hathaway, has come down from Stratford-upon-Avon, where she’s having a hard time with their kids. Even worse, she doesn’t like the ending of her husband’s new work. She suggests that, instead of Juliet taking her own life, she should instead take some time to think things through, and instead go on a journey of self-discovery.
Said journey will be played out to a background of songs, tinkered with and sometimes crowbarred into the plot, and all of them written by Max Martin. Martin was most prolific in the 1990s, and so the show is stuffed full of songs performed by Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, N*SYNC, and even Katy Perry, as well as many others.
The songs are mashed up – lyrics split amongst numerous characters as they’re made into mini-narratives of their own – and they do, mostly, manage to move the plot along. There’s one incidence that notably doesn’t, and the crow-barring into the narrative of this particular song is a massively extended piece of word play that runs from late in Act One to mid-way through Act Two. We don’t want to spoil it for you, but we think Shakespeare himself would be quite pleased with the absurdity of the punning involved.
The production leans heavily into Shakespearian conceits, and meta-theatrical moments. The fourth wall is not so much leaned on as battered down with a wrecking ball, as modern lighting, fireworks, and a surprising amount of confetti all make an appearance as the story progresses. Whilst ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is not itself a romance, & Juliet leans heavily into the format of Shakespeare’s comedies, and isn’t afraid to plunder some of the many tropes that are contained within the romance genre.
Beneath all this gloss and shimmer, a serious storyline develops. Juliet flees Verona due to the pressure being placed on her by her parents, and it takes her the majority of the show to decide what it is that she actually wants to do with her life – and she makes several mis-steps along the way before she comes to understand that making a decision for herself is a wholly acceptable outcome.
There’s a sub-plot concerning a second chance romance, and there’s also a love triangle which addresses issues of gender and sexual identity. Beneath all this there’s Anne Hathaway, grieving the loss of her child, and trying to force Will to engage in some self-reflection as to why he spends so long away from his family, if the art he’s making isn’t a true reflection of what he wants to be producing.
That the production manages to include all this in a running time of around two and a half hours (including interval) is a credit to the overall tight construction of the piece, and the familiarity with the material that comes from a cast that is now well-settled into the production.
Those new members of the cast in featured roles therefore have work to do to fit in, to form part of a company that’s been working together for several years, without either fading into the background, or trying to steal too much of the limelight. Julius D’Silva (Highlander) is the new Lance – a part of that second-chance romance, and playing the role of one of the older characters with warmth, and a scenery-chewing accent that wouldn’t be out of place in ‘Allo ‘Allo. Keale Settle (The Greatest Showman), is the other half of that couple, and is making her West End debut after considerable success on Broadway.
The role of the Nurse within Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’ is a small but often difficult role to characterise, and here, Settle makes the role her own – she’s also, thankfully, been given an actual name, which does a lot to humanise a character who is often shown as an outsider, but who is here made a central part of the narrative. Newcomer Tom Francis puts in a solid performance as a very rakish Romeo – and he manages to pull off the costume aesthetic of ‘1990s – but make it the 1590s too’ with aplomb.
& Juliet is now an assured production, that has settled into its London home comfortably, and has managed to maintain its energy despite the many challenges of the pandemic-era. The show is a joy, and we were grinning from ear-to-ear as we exited the theatre to the fading choruses of a truckload of nineties floor-fillers. We would caution that, purely for a couple of uses of some swear words, this show may not be suitable for younger children, but teenagers and older should be fine. Recommended for a nostalgic night out that carries you along in its exuberance, and knows that its job is to entertain you.
& Juliet is running at The Shaftesbury Theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in London, with booking now open until 24th September 2022. https://www.andjulietthemusical.co.uk/
