first night review: & Juliet @ the saenger theatre

It's a Bard knock life...& Juliet at The Saenger Theatre

​First Night Review: & Juliet @ The Saenger Theatre
review by Dorian Hatchett

We are such stuff as dreams are made on
Shakespeare is for the people. I would posit the notion that every adaptation, every derivative work, is exactly in keeping with the voice of the bard. Each time someone picks up a play that was written for the stage at the Globe Theatre and says “But what if…” a new flower grows in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Jukebox musicals are the very definition of theatre for the sake of fun. 

If music be the food of love, play on 
& Juliet premiered in 2019 at the Manchester Opera House, and has been playing continuously in one form or another ever since. The soundtrack is by Pop songwriting phenom Max Martin, who is arguably the reason we know names like The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Pink, Katy Perry, and even Taylor Swift. The super-cut medleys in this show are pure nostalgia for millennials, candy coated love letters to the wreckless times in the late 90s and early aughts before social media and phones with built in cameras. The characters are believably teenagers because this was the treble and bass of our teenage years right there played out in lights and rhinestones.  

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. 
& Juliet examines what would happen if the final tragic moments in Romeo and Juliet hadn’t been the end at all, but a prequel to Juliet waking up and realizing she kind of let herself get carried away with that star-crossed lovers bit.  Rachel Simone Webb as Juliet is a rose we need by no other name. Her best friend May (Nick Drake) is the yassss every teenage girl needs in her corner.  It also plays out a marital rift between the playwright (Shakespeare is played by Corey March) and his wife (Teal Wicks is Anne Hathaway) and as these story lines weave in and out of one another, and finally coalesce, we are shown a lesson about the value of kindness and truth in the pursuit of love.  

The course of true love never did run smooth
This show is above all, polished. There’s a dynamic set, a company of skilled dancers who take up space and fill the background, a costume department that is at once a riot of color and variety and also completely cohesive. Just the right amount of broadway magic transports you into the action as confetti rains down during a rhinestone-studded climax when Juliet finally learns the lesson that her heart had been seeking the entire time. 

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none
 
&Juliet Plays at the Saenger Theatre January 14-19th, click here for information and ticketing