& Juliet
★★★★☆ No woe
Playhouse: Tue 12 – Sat 16 Nov 2024
Review by Martin Gray
There is no woe to this story of Juliet without her Romeo, as Shakespeare’s most famous heroine gets solo billing in the girl power musical & Juliet which hits the Playhouse this week.
What if Juliet hadn’t died at the end of Shakespeare’s most famous love story? That’s the intriguing premise behind this award-winning jukebox musical. Happy to declare its status as a collection of hit songs tied together by a high concept, a jazzy jukebox is right there on stage as we wait for the action to begin.
Theres’s no curtain to come up, so we see the set: a representation of a Shoreditch theatre with a terrific old map signalling the fact. Ensemble members stroll on one by one, waving at the audience, holding up Ye Olde English Sign reminding: no photos, no phones.
Lara Denning (Anne) and the cast of & Juliet. Pic: Matt Crockett
And we’re in, with Backstreet Boys’ hit Larger Than Life, bringing on the ensemble along with William Shakespeare, who is surprised to see his wife Anne Hathaway here for the staging of Romeo & Juliet. But it’s her night off and she’s come down from Stratford-upon-Avon, so stick it, Will.
He explains the play, right to the ending, and she’s declares said conclusion “shit – what if you just rewrote it?” OK, the feeling-nagged hubby says, he’ll tweak it as an experiment…
And in short order we have his teenage heroine alive in fair Verona, learning at Romeo’s funeral that he had many other lovers and escaping from a nunnery with the help of new best pal May and her own devoted Nurse, Angelique.
marry, or join the army
Along with Anne, who has written herself into proceedings as Juliet’s previously unmentioned pal April, they shoot off to Paris where Juliet and May both fall for the same young man, Francois, who’s been told by Dad Lance that he must marry, or join the army. Meanwhile lusty Angelique is swept off her feet by the widowed Lance who, it turns out, is the old boss she had a fling with years previously, prompting her to up sticks for Verona.
Matt Cardle (Will), Lara Denning (Anne), Gerardine Sacdalan (Juliet) and Sandra Marvin (Angelique). Pic: Matt Crockett
And so the stage is set for misunderstandings, revelations, reunions and, of course, marriages.
So far, so Shakespearean, but writer David West Read aims his script at young adults eager to see themselves in history. So May is non-binary, which is a reasonable nod to the boys-playing-girls tradition of the times. The Nurse gets a backstory, making her more a character than a prop. New character Francois is kicking against parental expectations. And Juliet, rather than Romeo’s equal in the doomed loved department, is a young woman who has been taken advantage of by a man, and must find her voice while ‘trying to own my choices’.
flounces
Fair to say, Juliet’s voice is annoying. She flounces around the stage like an entitled brat, blaming Romeo for everything that happened to her when actually they were both victims of circumstance, fate and their own emotions. & Juliet demonises the poor lad with the decidedly non-canon army of lovers, girls and boys, in the name of female empowerment.
Gerardine Sacdalan (Juliet). Pic: Matt Crockett
The frankly fickle 14-year-old gets over Romeo’s death in seconds and a day later is engaged to a French lad she’s just met. As for Juliet finding her voice, the irony is that in the first half at least she’s lost as scene after scene serves other characters. And rather than finding agency, she’s never more than a puppet in the hands of Will and Anne.
So if you’re not under 25, go along for the high-energy production numbers, enjoy the dizzying spectacle of it all and listen for some rather excellent gags from Will and Anne. They’re the best characters, with Anne’s complaints about being left to raise the kids while Will whoops it up in London, addressing love poems to a young fella, being fair enough.
The songs from Swedish writer Max Martin and Friends include such bangers as …Baby One More Time, I Want It That Way, I Kissed a Girl and Since u Been Gone. Cracking numbers all, performed with huge energy by the massively talented cast. A standout sequence features Problem/Can’t Feel My Face with powerhouse singing, dynamic dancing and intense lighting.
experience and charisma
The cast are superb, top to bottom. Gerardine Sacdalan (Juliet) and Lara Denning (Anne) get the showiest moments of song, with massive notes impressively held, but prove equally adept with the quieter moments… there aren’t many, but they’re there! Sandra Marvin brings her experience and charisma to Angelique, while Jordan Broatch makes the most of May, the most appealing character in the show – never whining or deceiving, always true to themselves.
Ranj Singh (Lance) and Sandra Marvin (Angelique). Pic: Matt Crockett
Kyle Cox is suitably weedy of character as Francois thought his pipes are anything but, while Jack Danson – in a surprise role – is a hoot. And entirely excellent from start to finish is Michael Nelson as Will – on for star Matt Cardle and owning the role, bringing bags of charm to the rightly nagged writer. His partnership with Lara Denning is the backbone of the show, and it is delightful.
The surprise of the night – in terms of ‘what the heck is he doing there?’ and ‘he’s actually not a bad singer’ – is Ranj Singh, telly doctor and Strictly alumnus. He amuses as Lance, though his Pepé Le Pew accent is painful, apparently there for the sake of a single, admittedly good, gag.
terrifies
Katie Ramshaw terrifies as Lady Capulet, turning up from to time to order her daughter around, ever brandishing a vial of poison like a twisted Lady Liberty…
The ensemble members provide high energy support throughout, dancing, running and somersaulting around the stage while singing some pretty demanding songs. Every one of them listed as an understudy or alternate for a lead role, a tribute to how good these young performers are.
Jordan Broatch (May). Pic: Matt Crockett
Jennifer Weber’s choreography makes the most of Soutra Gilmore’s clever set which, coming from London, means the huge Playhouse stage has those old wooden end pieces that remind us of how small most West End theatres are. Paloma Young’s costumes are period-ish, but the ‘ish’ means Juliet has to wear some pretty unflattering creations, including an horrific Andy Pandy number.
One young chap spends the entire show in tiny cut-off shirts showing his admirable abs; the best costumes are those which look unapologetically Elizabethan, such as Anne’s first frock and Will’s doublet and hose. Still, this is a world in which Juliet can skip from Renaissance Italy to a Paris of nightclubs, the Eiffel Tower and the Metro, so verisimilitude obviously isn’t the aim.
marvellous mob
As for the band, Marcus Carter-Adams leads a marvellous mob of minstrels who blow the metaphorical roof off the Playhouse for that opening number right through to the madly joyous ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling.
The only off-note in director Luke Sheppard’s production is the rainfall of golden ticker-tape which makes for fun moments of theatre – it comes twice – but a lot of environmental mess and extra work for the Playhouse staff.
If you’re a fan of musicals, whether a young buck in the first throes of love or a more seasoned player, you should find lots to like in & Juliet.
Running time: Two hours and 30 minutes (including one interval).
Playhouse, 18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA.
Tue 12 – Sat 16 Nov 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm; Wed, Sat: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Jack Danson. Pic: Matt Crockett
ENDS
