Summary
Featuring music by Jack Antonoff, this revival reimagines the classic tragedy through a contemporary lens, infusing the story with modern youth aesthetics. The narrative follows the star-crossed children of the feuding Capulet and Montague families, whose secret marriage defies their parents’ ancient grudge.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 7:00 PM Dec 3, 2024, 7:00 PM
Uneven but has its moments. Kit Connor and Sola Fadiran are consistent highlights; others, to varying degrees, sometimes feel like they’re getting swallowed by the language. Rachel Zegler was at her most convincing giving the Broadway Cares spiel at the end.
The press for this thing wants to market it as, like, sexually charged, but I don’t know if watching all the actors grind and dry-hump each other really gets there. There were a lot of giggles in the crowd whenever the whole ensemble was writhing around on stage. However, I do appreciate that they’re trying to do something here to make this accessible to a younger crowd, even if I’m not necessarily the target audience (or maybe sometimes it just misses).
The round staging is used effectively and doesn’t feel like it explicitly favors one side. Throughout the show, actors weave in and around the crowd, up in the rafters, around and below the stage. This is the show at its best—when the action is swirling around you at unconventional angles, bringing you forward into the scene. At one point I was lucky to be close behind Romeo as he gazed up at Juliet on her balcony above, cool moonlight illuminating wisps of her hair and the edges of his physique. Really lovely.
At its worst, the contemporary take sometimes breaks the immersion. Actors flit between characters, often across genders, with little-to-no telegraphing in appearance or tone, and it takes a beat to catch up. Mouthfuls of Shakespeare are delivered with very modern intonation for cheap laughs. Some characters are costumed in distracting message tees or just poorly-fitting underwear. I think this is probably the first “R+J” (of many to come, no doubt) with a 12-pack of Celsius and a bag of Haribo gummy bears on the stage, where the crowd is led in a rousing chorus of “We Are Young,” or where Romeo drinks poison from a borg jug. There are too many examples to list.
I’m not clutching my pearls here—it’s often funny (on purpose!), and God knows there have been more than enough straight-laced versions—but leaning so far into the anachronistic sillies may undercut the emotional weight of the serious bits. By the time the tragedy rolls around, which is largely played straight, it feels like a tonal mismatch for the rest of the show.
In spite of that, I thought it was worth seeing. The kids are having fun and doing something different from the rest of the Broadway circuit. Maybe they don’t quite stick the landing but I appreciate a creative risk.