‘& Juliet’, Birmingham Hippodrome, 22 April 2025 until 26 April then on tour, 4☆☆☆☆. Review: David Gray & Paul Gray.
Photo Credit: Matt Crockett.
‘& Juliet’, Birmingham Hippodrome, 22 April 2025 until 26 April then on tour,
4☆☆☆☆. Review: David Gray & Paul Gray.
“A hit parade of a show.”
The purpose of any Juke Box Musical is to provide an engaging plot and characters. These should generate excuses to perform a sizeable number of songs from the artist, artists or era the musical has been created to celebrate. A good example of the genre will skilfully create the illusion that the songs arise from the situations in the plot, and the emotional imperatives of the characters, and not the other way round.
‘& Juliet’ does a reasonably decent job of this. It has a complex, metatextual narrative. This involves Will - as in William Shakespeare - and his wife, Anne Hathaway, together creating and participating in an alternative story about what happens to Juliet after she doesn’t kill herself at the end of the play ‘Romeo & Juliet’. This provides lots of twists, turns, setbacks and frustrations which prompt its many characters to frequently emote through the medium of song. As a result, the show draws on a hefty thirty or so numbers by songwriter, Max Martin and collaborators.
The songs sometime seem shoehorned in. This is particularly true when it comes to the non-binary character, May, played with great warmth, and very well sung, by Jordan Broatch. For example, the song ‘I’m not a girl, not yet a woman’ doesn’t really seem to work for them or their journey of self-discovery. Nor does ‘I kissed a girl, and I liked it’, which is sung about them when they are kissed.
The convoluted nature of the plot, and the number of characters, causes structural problem towards the end of the show. There are four couples with a love interest. Also, another couple with crossed emotional wires, and other characters with daddy and mummy issues, all of which need to be resolved. As a result, the lead up to the finale gets a bit ballad-heavy while we plough through necessary moments of catharsis.
On the whole, however, the show works, delivering highly polished and vocally impressive performances of banger-after-banger-after-banger of chart-topping pop songs. This musical really is a hit parade and, from a musical perspective, cannot be faulted.
Anne Hathaway is the driving force behind the narrative, and Lara Denning is a force of nature in the role. She may not be the protagonist, but she emerges as the star, with powerful and flawless vocal delivery. The whole ensemble is vocally and dramatically very well-cast, without any weak links.
Clever costumes fuse Tudor and modern motifs to quirky effect. The choreography is slick and never less than scintillating. There is lots of fun being had, and even a smattering of in-jokes for the actual Shakespeare fans.
The key thing is the energy with which the cast powers through the show, carrying all before them, so that we don’t really care about the weakness of the plot or the flimsiness of its sexual politics. The hits keep coming and the overall effect is irresistible.
Cast
Shakespeare – Jay McGuiness
Juliet – Geraldine Sacdalan
Anne – Lara Denning
Angelique – Sandra Marvin
Lance – Ranj Singh
May – Jordan Broatch
Francois – Kyle Cox
Romeo – Ben Jackson Walker
Creatives
Music & Lyrics – Max Martin & Friends
Book – David West Read
Director – Luke Sheppard
Choreographer – Jennifer Weber
Music arranged – Bill Sherman
Sets – Soutra Gilmour
Costumes – Paloma Young
Lighting – Howard Hudson