An Astonishing ROMEO + JULIET For A New Age — Review

Broadway

Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler | Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

By
Juan A. Ramirez
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October 24, 2024 11:00 PM
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Reviews

Early into the director Sam Gold’s winning revival of Romeo + Juliet, a Montague and a Capulet interrupt their fight to share a brief makeout, smile conspiratorially at each other, then resume brawling. No, they’re not the titular star-crossed lovers, but rather two of their feuding comrades, Abraham (Daniel Bravo Hernández) and Gregory (Jasai Chase-Owens). It’s a bold, succinct announcement of what this staging of Shakespeare’s 16th-century work will be: queer, modern and, yes, bratty. 

It’s smart to have this cheeky moment occur so quickly, both in how soon it occurs and how rapidly it’s moved past: there’s a slight cringe factor at the intervention (“Oh, this is edgy Shakespeare”) but, also, a truth (aren’t most men so bent on engaging in physical confrontation ultimately a little, well, bent?).

The same can be said for the aggressive promotional push the production – which features teen heartthrobs Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler – began in the months preceding its opening. For those not squarely in the 25-and-under thrall to those two, its strategy could come off as repellent; overloaded with try-hard slogans like “THE YOUTH IS F*CKED,” a seeming overreliance on Bushwick aesthetics, and a dubious “music by Jack Antonoff” credit that had so far only produced a Bleachers-scored teaser that looked like a defanged Euphoria. Can we not have a nice, simple Shakespeare without resulting to such culture vulturing?

It turns out that, aside from some harmless frippery on the edges of the production, this is a remarkably strong Romeo + Juliet, performed in the round at Circle in the Square. Once the cast is done performing capital-C-coolness, as they do in the mosh pit-like rave scene that opens the show, they launch into an appealingly well-acted, sleek adaptation of the well-known tale. Working with the dramaturgs Michael Sexton and Ayanna Thompson, and whittling it into a potent two-hours-ten plus intermission, Gold has focused the play’s energy onto its social dynamics.

The first act, especially, places an attractive premium on the party at which the lovers will meet, portraying the two clans (they’re less obviously families than groups here) as teens antsy to just hang out and get into trouble. A nice bit comes when a cast member hands out party flyers to audience members in the front row. Antonoff’s thumping techno score keeps a lively pace, as do Sonya Tayeh’s pulsating movement direction and choreography, and Isabella Byrd’s fun bisexual lighting.

Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler | Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

The stylization reaches its peak in a truly transfixing balcony scene, with the brawny Connor standing on a bed of multicolor roses and Zegler on a small cot suspended from the ceiling. (dots arranged the scenic design.) Connor is a leading-man revelation, flexing an iron grasp on the material (and on Juliet’s bed, when he hoists himself up there; cue adoring swoons from the audience) and ability to make it fresh and romantic. Zegler, though with fewer scenes to prove her acting chops, is clearly a star, and shines in a soulful new ballad by Antonoff.

(The flashiness reaches rock bottom in a modification of an often-cut scene where a character attempts to lighten the mood through music. Here, it’s by leading an audience singalong of “We Are Young.” As with the production’s few other distractions, it thankfully goes as quickly as it comes.)

The less dolled-up scenes drag slightly. Too much heavy lifting is dumped onto Gabby Beans’ shoulders in her dual narrator role as Mercutio and the friar. The day Beans gives a bad performance has yet to come (and never will), but even her endless charisma can’t match the rest of the production’s freneticism whenever the music stops and the house lights go up. (She does, however, light up the otherwise silly rave scenes with the full-tilt energy of someone who has actually been to a few of these.)

Beans and the rest of the young cast are in top form, even if Tommy Dorfman draws a bit too much attention to herself as Juliet’s nurse, and later Tybalt. Rounding out the rest of the Motomami Montagues (Enver Chakartash has decked out Romeo’s tribe in masculine BMX gear, with more femme looks for the Capulets) are Taheen Modak and Nihar Duvvuri as Benvolio and Balthazar. On the opposite side of the divide are Sola Fadiran, very funny as both Capulet parents, and Gían Perez as Samson, Peter, and an R&B-crooning Paris. All look appropriately plucked right out of the Morgan Ave L-train stop, in keeping with the production’s aesthetic.

None of them are ever offstage for too long, and Gold’s emphasis on social circles supports the play’s intended tragedy of two sacrificial lambs caught in a larger web. Despite the star power of its leads, the staging holds firm in its strong thematic core. It’s all a very pleasant surprise that this Romeo + Juliet is more akin to Skins – the British series whose impact we must not let be forgotten – than expected: wildly enjoyable, acutely contemporary, potently acted, and often surprisingly revealing.

Romeo + Juliet is in performance at the Circle in the Square Theatre on West 50th St in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.

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Juan A. Ramirez

Juan A. Ramirez writes arts and culture reviews, features, and interviews for publications in New York and Boston, and will continue to do so until every last person is annoyed. Thanks to his MA in Film and Media Studies from Columbia University, he has suddenly found himself the expert on Queer Melodrama in Venezuelan Cinema, and is figuring out ways to apply that.

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