THEATRE &Juliet
★★★★★ SHAFTESBURY THEATRE, LONDON, UNTIL 24 SEPTEMBER
Forget life after death, the crucial question this award-winning musical asks is: is there life after Romeo? And the answer is yes! Based on the book by Schitt’s Creek writer David West Read, the play explores what would happen if Juliet didn’t die at the end of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, but instead went on to live her best life after discovering Romeo was a major player. Even more excitingly, the action is ingeniously set to the hits of Max Martin, the
Swedish pop songwriter behind most of your favourite bangers like Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl and Britney’s Baby One More Time.
With Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway writing an alternative ending to his work, we see Juliet (Miriam-teak Lee), accompanied by Nurse Angelique (brilliant new casting of Keala Settle from The Greatest Showman) and her non-binary friend May (Alex Thomas-smith), heading to Paris for some serious fun and amour. No spoilers, but Juliet winds up with a guy called Francois (Tim Mahendran), and safe to say “it’s complicated” – not least because Romeo (Tom Francis) turns up. The scenes between former lovers Angelique and Francois’ father Lance (new role for Julius D’silva) are particularly fun, and you can’t help but be swept up by the energy of this smart, relevant reimagining of a classic tragedy. The new cast are a welcome excuse to see this epic play, but really no excuse is necessary. It’s genius.