There’s a lot of hype around this revival of Romeo & Juliet, and it’s not hard to see why – it’s rare to have a star quite as famous as Tom Holland on London’s West End.
Couple that with this being a Jamie Lloyd production – Lloyd having brought us last year’s enjoyably ridiculous revival of Sunset Blvd, which swept the Olivier Awards and is due to open on Broadway this year – and it’s understandable that there’s a great deal of excitement for this production, which is pretty much already sold out.
There aren’t really many plays more famous than Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet – the tale of star crossed lovers is regularly performed, a major Baz Luhrmann film, and also probably something we read growing up (those of us that went to school in the UK).
In the lead roles are Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. The supporting cast is strong – we particularly enjoyed Freema Agyeman as Nurse, and Heartstopper’s Nima Taleghani as Benvolio, both of whom demonstrate expert comic timing.