Oops! He did it again . . . with Bard musical
MAX MARTIN — the uber producer and songwriter behind Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Celine dion — has written a number that will bypass his superstar collaborators and go into a new musical showcasing his chart successes. He has penned the song for & Juliet, a Shakespeare-inspired stage show that features two dozen or more of his hit songs. He and director Luke Sheppard have identified a slot for the composition. They wouldn’t divulge the title, but told me they will experiment with it in rehearsals and, if it works, it will be heard publicly for the first time when & Juliet starts at the Opera House, Manchester, on September 10. it moves to the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, from november 2. Martin travelled from new York, where he’s been producing The weeknd’s new album, to watch & Juliet’s cast perform a workshop for the production’s creative team and producers. The premise of the show has Juliet (Shakespeare’s ‘star cross’d’ lover), still alive after romeo’s death. Miriam-Teak Lee is electrifying in the title role. it’s a show about being allowed to make your own choices — ‘Feeling you’re in the driving seat of your own life,’ said Lee. As Anne Hathaway and william Shakespeare, Cassidy Janson and Oliver Tompsett fantasise over a new ending for romeo and Juliet. ‘Are you a strong enough man to write a stronger woman?’ is how Hathaway challenges will. writer david west read came up with the plot after a meeting with Martin. ‘i gave david a list of songs and said: “Try to make sense of these” ,’ Martin recalled. ‘A song you might have heard as one thing is now used in a completely different context,’ the usually low-profile Martin said, citing Teenage dream —a multi-million seller for Katy Perry, now sung, wistfully, in & Juliet by a 50-plus-year- old man. ‘ This show is a way to make the songs come alive again,’ Martin said. ‘Some are 20 years old. These songs are like babies, and it’s like my babies grew up and got into college.’
He was talking after listening to main cast members Lee, Janson, Tompsett, Arun Blair- Mangat, Jordan Luke gage, Melanie La Barrie, Tim Mahendran, plus Peter Polycarpou and company give new life to Britney Spears chart-toppers Baby One More Time and Oops! . . . i did it Again. They also take on Backstreet Boys’ i want it That way; the Justin Timberlake smash Can’t Stop The Feeling! and many others.
Martin said it had been on his mind, and his wife’s, for ten years to use his songs (he kept stressing that he didn’t write them alone and praised his many collaborators).
One goal was to have a strong story that held up the songs as if they were written specifically for it. ‘They had to seem organic,’ he told me, agreeing that he didn’t want a story that went, ‘ then this happened, then we wrote this song’.
‘i’m not a musical buff,’ he added, ‘but what i do love about it is the instant reaction. i spend months in the studio working on these things, and it might come out a year later.
‘it’s like — comparing it to sport — if you score a goal, you get the instant satisfaction. This is music in its purest form.
‘You get a reaction right away and there’s something primal about that. i’m realising what a powerful art form the musical is.’
Another thing that impressed him about the ace cast was that they could all act, sing and dance.
‘And they show up on time. i’m not used to that!’ Martin told me, observing that when recording an album, rockers don’t always hold punctuality in high esteem.
You don’t have to be a devotee of the Max Martin catalogue to enjoy & Juliet. i was au fait with just a handful of songs, so many were a delicious revelation.