This show is somewhat absurd, but it deals with some pretty hefty issues and is, actually, quite good fun.
The premise is simple - what happens if Juliet doesn’t kill her herself at the end of Romeo and Juliet? An interesting question, and I was intrigued to see how it would be answered. I liked the way that the answer came through William Shakespeare (Oliver Tompsett) and his wife, Anne Hathaway (Cassidy Janson), live-writing the story through possession of the writing quill. Tompsett and Janson gave brilliant performances and, as Shakespeare was delegated (by his wife’s writing) to a minor role at the back, I particularly liked watching Tompsett’s expressions and reactions to what was happening on stage - they were some of the best facial expressions that I have seen for a while!
Everything has been updated to a much more modern setting, with current day speech and characterisations, and jazzed up Elizabethan costumes. Think along the lines of ‘Six’. The story is a series of pop songs woven together by a pretty clichéd and predictable plot (it may have happened the other way round, I don’t know), and the dialogue is pretty painful and infantile. However, it deals with some fairly big issues: female empowerment, gender identification and sexuality. There is nothing sensitive about how these issues are dealt with - it’s loud, proud and shouted from the roof tops and is, indeed, the entire basis of the show - but it’s done through humour and music. I have to say that, on one or two occasions, I felt slightly uneasy with the comical way in which a particular issue was dealt with. I can’t remember what they were, but I remember thinking that they weren’t funny.
This show has a very talented cast, with some amazing vocals from Miriam-Teak Lee (Juliet) and Jordan Luke Gage (Romeo), but, for me, Tompsett and David Bedella (Lance) completely stole the show.
One of my favourite scenes, and one which had no underlying message and was just pure fun and enjoyment, was ‘Everybody’ in Act 2. Completely brilliant and fun, and I wanted to get up and join in. I think a reprise at the curtain call would be very much welcomed by the audience…
Other members of the audience either know the music particularly well or have seen this show before because there were a couple of points where they started laughing during the introduction to a song, clearly knowing the lyrics and how it was going to play out in the scene. This didn’t spoil anything, as everything became clear during the numbers, but it did initially make me wonder whether I had missed something.
Given the background music playing in the auditorium before the start of the show, I was worried that the sound was going to be too loud and overpowering. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t too loud, and the sound balance was pretty good as the music didn’t drown out the singing. The bass, however, was far far too much. It was reverberating through the seats and I could feel it in my chest! This definitely needs to be turned down a bit! And, for the most part, I wasn’t painfully blinded by lights - just on one or two occasions - which, again, was a really pleasant surprise.
As I say, this show is somewhat absurd, almost pantomime in nature. It’s silly and ridiculous, and the dialogue is painful, but it’s comical and fun. It’s a fun show with some serious messages, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. I actually think that that is fantastic. Yes, the messages were loud and obvious and, to some extent, rammed down the audience’s throat - the messages were the entire point of the story and, indeed, the way it was portrayed through the live-writing stage device - but it was still comical and fun. This, and the message being the basis of the show, is entirely different from a message being squeezed into an already existent storyline (I’m thinking of the awful production of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre a few years ago), and I think that it works a lot better and is more accessible and respectful for an audience.
This show looks like a lot of fun, and the actors look like they are having the time of their lives performing in it. You get the sense that there is a very close-knit & Juliet family.
Would I see it again? Maybe, but probably not more than twice. If you’re looking for a fun show for a cold wintery evening, then I suggest having a look at this one.