& JULIET: ORIGINAL LONDON CAST RECORDING

(out now)

As far as jukebox musicals go, you can’t get more iconic than the back catalogue of pop hitmaker Max Martin. Since the late 90s with his eradefining hits with Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys, right up to modernday bangers with Katy Perry, Ariana Grande and The Weeknd, the Swedish producer has informed pop culture for a generation. Here these timeless classics soundtrack a stage kind-of-sequel to Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet based around the narrative of “what if” Juliet hadn’t killed herself at the end. This cast recording hears the reimagined anthems with their new musical twist. You already know every word, but new characterisations reinvent songs you’ve already lived with for years. Robyn’s Show Me Love is a highlight, while Kesha’s Blow is bursting with more theatrics than the original. Meanwhile, Britney’s Overprotected is transformed into a male/ female duet between Francois and Juliet with an Elizabethan overhaul. Demi Lovato’s Confident proves to be an empowering musical moment full of drama, nothing quite prepares you for Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream and Ariana Grande’s Break Free to become a mashup duet, and Juliet getting into her feelings on Britney’s Stronger is suitably stratospheric. Most of the songs stay faithful to the original, but with this new story tying them all together, the & Juliet soundtrack is a hit-packed bundle of fun.