Mix the single-artist salute Mamma Mia! with the contempo-pop stylings of Moulin Rouge!; add a healthy dose of the Shakespeare-themed Something Rotten, and a sprinkle of the Renaissance-grrl-powered Six… and you’ve got some idea of what’s in store for you at & Juliet, the candy-colored glitter bomb of a show that just opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.
But & Juliet—a jukebox musical built around 30 megahits/earworms from Swedish songwriter and super-producer Max Martin (he’s masterminded songs made famous by the Backstreet Boys, ’N Sync, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Jessie J, Demi Lovato, and more)—is very much its own thing in so many wild and wonderful ways.
Here’s the thing (to quote one of Kelly Clarkson’s, and & Juliet’s, biggest hits): Anne Hathaway—William Shakespeare’s wife, of “second-best bed” fame—is a major character. Sure, Shakespeare is too, but Anne has a bit more sway here. She’s the one who persuades her literary legend hubby to give his star-crossed heroine a happier ending. “What if,” she posits, “Juliet didn’t kill herself?” Incidentally, Anne and Will are played by Betsy Wolfe and Stark Sands, respectively, two Broadway vets with Swiss-precision comic timing (they should consider pairing up as Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing).
[Read Frank Scheck’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
So Juliet (the dynamite Lorna Courtney, who absolutely slays power-pop songs such as “Since U Been Gone” and “Roar”) lives! But, to paraphrase Britney’s 1998 debut single, her loneliness is killing her. To try to forget about the untimely death of her balcony-climbing beloved—and to avoid getting sent to a nunnery—she escapes to Paris with her fabulous BFF May (Justin David Sullivan), her nurse Angélique (Melanie La Barrie), and her new BFF April, who’s actually just Anne in cooler clothes. Paris is lit: They crash a banging Renaissance ball where Juliet rides a chandelier; May has a moment with the nerdy but cute François (Philippe Arroyo); Angélique has a moment with her gone-but-not-forgotten former flame, François’ father, Lance (Metropolitan Opera alum and South Pacific Tony winner Paulo Szot); and Juliet and François decide to get married just so their parents will leave them alone. Then Shakespeare stirs the pot by bringing Romeo (Ben Jackson Walker, positively electric) back from the grave. Oh, that Shakespeare does love to make a mess of things.
Descending from the sky in a cloud of smoke wailing on Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” (“It’s now or never/ I ain’t gonna live forever”), Romeo is basically a Renaissance rock star: skinny painted-on jeans, chunky black boots, silver biker chains, and a Gucci-esque flouncy pink shirt that screams Harry Styles, plus a badass studded leather moto jacket with MONTAGUE painted atop a dagger-pierced heart. The Elizabethan thrift-store chic costumes by Tony winner Paloma Young (Peter and the Starcatcher)—a fabulous fusion of colorful corsets, tulle, deconstructed doublets, faded denim, rich velvet, baggy sweats, puffy shirts, ruffs, crowns and headpieces, trendy gold paper-clip chains and nameplate necklaces, and one very memorable codpiece—are perfection. And combat boots and sneakers galore, which seem like a necessity considering Jennifer Weber’s intricate hip-hop-heavy choreography (especially the exceptionally cool “Problem/Can’t Feel My Face” mashup in Act 2).
If we have a quibble or two, it might be that the show is a few minutes too long. (Though, to be fair, that’s a criticism that’s leveled at most of Shakespeare’s plays as well.) And the confetti. So. Much. Confetti. That theater looks like Times Square 10 minutes after New Year’s Eve.
But & Juliet succeeds where many jukebox musicals don’t: It shoehorns the songs into the script practically seamlessly, a credit to librettist David West Read. As a writer and producer for the hit sitcom Schitt’s Creek, Read—previously represented in New York with the captivating drama The Dream of the Burning Boy (2011) at Roundabout Underground and the blink-and-you-missed-it Broadway porn-industry comedy The Performers (2012)—clearly has an appreciation for all kinds of humor, from wordplay to visual gags to random silliness. Did you ever think you’d see Paulo Szot doing the booty slap on a Broadway stage?
And brace yourself for the wedding party in Act 2, because the sight of François, Will, Lance, Romeo, and May as a 16th-century boy band harmonizing on “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back”) is enough to make you lose your mind. Or at least laugh until you can’t feel your face.
& Juliet opened Nov. 17, 2022, at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. Tickets and information: andjulietbroadway.com
