William Shakespeare’s classic love story Romeo and Juliet gets an overhaul in the musical & Juliet which opened Tuesday by Broadway Dallas at the Music Hall at Fair Park. Laced heavily with Max Martin pop hits, this Juliet moves on from her recently dead Romeo and overbearing parents with an empowered outlook, supportive friends and possibly a new beau. The result was glorious pop-music bliss and a clever and funny script by David West Read.
The meta-premise begins with the “Larger Than Life” introduction of William Shakespeare with his wife Anne Hathaway in tow as he sets to finish his latest play. She convinces him to rewrite the ending giving Juliet a choice instead of killing herself over one guy. When he avers “I Want it That Way,” Anne takes the story into her own hands.
As the bro bard, Corey Mack played the douchey Shakespeare with both charming and ick vibes that served the story with groans and laughs. Teal Wicks did double duty-ish as Anne Hathaway and Juliet’s friend April. She conveyed an entire emotional spectrum as the initially supportive and sassy wife until she bore her feelings of pain and rejection. Then she turned out some great comedy chops as part of Juliet’s entourage.
We then meet Juliet at the scene of her dead Romeo where she begins her own story with “Baby One More Time” and she and her friends May and April with her nursemaid Angelique embark on an adventure to Paris with a new outlook. She and May meet Francois who sparks an interest in both while Angelique accidentally reunites with a former flame. All the while, Anne and Will fight over the direction of the play and of Juliet. So meta.
The familiar pop songs give the story an ebullient energy be them ballads or bangers. That Max Martin hits could be feasibly turned into a storytelling tool was always unexpected with each song conveying the exact feelings of what was happening onstage. You may never hear “Teenage Dream” or “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” the same again which
queer
Pop
song
performer
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Love
classical
Max Martin
William Shakespeare
Anne Hathaway