Musical: & Juliet
Shaftesbury Theatre, London WC2 (020-7379 5399). Until 30 May Running time: 2hrs 30mins ★★★
What do you get when you combine the back catalogue of the Swedish pop maestro Max Martin, the Canadian writer behind Schitt’s Creek, an unapologetically daft plot involving the rewriting of
Romeo & Juliet at the insistence of Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway – and then sprinkle the mix with vast quantities of West End glitter and a “shed load” of singing talent? The answer, said Alex Wood on What’s On Stage, is & Juliet – “one of the best new musicals in a while, and then some”. It helps, of course, that Martin has one of the most extensive song catalogues out there, writing smash after smash for the likes of Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Jessie J, the Backstreet Boys and Katy Perry. From the moment Shakespeare and Hathaway start having a battle of wits to the lyrics of I Want it That Way, you “know you’re in safe hands”.
This “hoot” of a show is basically Romeo & Juliet rewritten as “a sort of woke panto” with lashings of power pop, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. Max Martin’s “Big Tunes”, reconfigured into “lush new Tudor-nodding arrangements” with harpsichords to the fore, sound immense here. And it all looks “fabulous” too. Paloma Young’s witty neo-Elizabethan costumes are surely future Olivier-winners. David West Read’s script is also a winner, said Nick Curtis in the London Evening Standard. It involves Hathaway bringing Juliet back to life and whisking her off to a
party in what seems to be 1990s Paris. As Juliet, Miriam-Teak Lee “owns the stage”, wowing the audience with her charisma and vocal power, and “banging out power ballads” and pop classics. Admittedly, none of this “blast” of a show is subtle; nor does it make much sense. But “who cares when you’ve got glitter cannons, breakdancers and a belting version of Baby
One More Time?”
Me, said Michael Billington in The Guardian. I care. And I’m afraid I can’t see the point of this “bizarre jukebox musical”. If the audience want to hear these songs, why not just present them in concert? It feels entirely “gratuitous” to attach them to a ludicrously silly plot which “in its desperation to sound the right feminist notes, becomes almost painfully hip”. There are pleasures to be had here, said Clive Davis in The Times. Just don’t go “stone-cold sober”.