It’s interesting without really planning it I ended up having a Shakespearean theme to this week at the theater. I will see Something Rotten twice, The Tempest, Henry V on Saturday and & Juliet as the national tour is coming to Eccles in Salt Lake. It’s really quite amazing when you think about it that a man who was born in 1564 is still monopolizing my week in 2025 as a theatre critic and fan! & Juliet has been a big hit on Broadway when it first debuted in 2022 and in a market where few shows last over a year that’s a very impressive run. I can see why it has such an appeal. It’s what I would call a gateway musical- It’s fun and most likely to appeal to young teen girls who are first getting into musical theatre. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it is a bit of a missed opportunity with a source material that has more to offer than such a bubble-gum treatment.

The concept for this musical is to subvert Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and reimagine it as a female empowerment piece accompanied by pop favorites from Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys to name a few. The setup is that Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare’s real-life wife) doesn’t like the ending of his famous play and wants to rewrite it. The two then become the narrators of this reinvented story for Juliet and it’s all mostly a vehicle for catchy tunes and bubbly dance numbers. There is some diversity promoted with a queer love story Juliet’s beau Francois (Mateus Leite Cardoso) and May (Nick Drake) and another for Juliet’s nurse Angelique (Kathryn Allison) and Francois’ Dad Lance (Paul-Jordan Jansen) which is all soapy and fun.

The problem I had with the book of & Juliet is that it approaches Romeo and Juliet on a romance-only level. Granted the play does have iconic swoony scenes like the balcony and does end in tragedy. The whole reason for the tragedy, however is because of the hate that divides the two families and makes things impossible for the young love to thrive. There’s so much to that conflict that the surface level of ‘look at these two young people in love’ is a bit frustrating. Even with the queer love story they don’t really dive into the familial conflict much so it all feels more like ‘look at these mean people who hate true love.’ It could be a lot more than that.

That said, if you are just looking for a show with a bunch of bops than you’ll enjoy & Juliet. Rachel Simone Webb is terrific as Juliet and things get a lot more entertaining in the second act when Michael Canu has a plotline as Romeo returns into the story. Everything is directed by Luke Sheppard and the choreography by Jennifer Weber is a lot of fun. The costumes by Paloma Young are probably the standout of production elements. There is in particular a very effective quick-change for Juliet towards the end of the show that is very impressive.

In my opinion & Juliet is one of those Broadway shows where if you listen to the original cast recording and it sounds appealing than you will have a good time with the show. If you listen and think ‘that sounds like a lame jukebox musical’ than it won’t be for you. There’s nothing in the story that will win you over so it’s all about the songs and their execution. Those elements work well enough for me to recommend the experience but the source material leaves a lot left on the cutting room floor and that’s a shame. Oh well! & Juliet is playing at Eccles until June 22nd and tickets can be purchased here.

& Juliet has music by Max Martin, arranged by Bill Sherman with lyrics by Max Martin and others and a book by David West Read based on the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

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