All the world’s a stage, and in the world of Midtown Manhattan, star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet return to the Broadway stage in the play’s 37th rendition. The return of a Shakespeare classic has never been more timely. Starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler with music by Jack Antonoff and directed by Tony-winning Shakespeare veteran Sam Gold ’00, this latest adaptation is campy, interactive and all about the youth.
Playing at the Circle in the Square Theatre, the show’s Generation Z target audience is staggeringly apparent. The tagline “The Youth Are Fucked” is visible all the way to the dimly lit lobby, which is more reminiscent of a nightclub than a Broadway theater — “Talk talk” by Charli xcx and Troye Sivan playing and all. Inside, the stage is small and minimally set, featuring several large teddy bears and a shopping cart filled with various stuffed animals. All the actors are double-cast besides the leads, energetically running around the entire theater with multiple moments of audience interaction. Most are clad in some combination of baggy pants and a graphic tee, many armed with a vape.
I loved several aspects of the play and was laughing at almost every scene in the first act. Though I’m biased as a fan of Heartstopper, Connor’s performance as Romeo was all the things I wanted it to be: breathtaking, moving, exciting and visceral. His command of both the stage and iambic pentameter — a rhythmic pattern comprised of stressed and unstressed beats — makes it hard not to become enamored with his Romeo. Zegler’s Juliet fell slightly flatter. At times, her line delivery felt textbook and lacked the depth for me to truly feel for Juliet the same way I felt for Romeo’s desperation and fickleness as a teenager. However, Zegler makes clear that, although Juliet is a mere 13 years old, she should by no means be brushed off as too young or immature. Other standouts were Gabby Beans (Mercutio and Friar Lawrence) and Tommy Dorfman (Nurse and Tybalt), who both interpreted their characters in a way that preserved both timelessness and current-day relatability. The iconic balcony scene was executed beautifully despite there being no actual balcony. Instead, Juliet is suspended above the stage in a bed while Romeo frantically runs around the entire theater, up and down almost every aisle — even behind and next to me at one point. Of course, the most talked about moment in the show occurs when Romeo jumps up to the bed and does a pull-up to kiss Juliet. Indeed it was impressive, but I had already seen so many clips of it on social media that I was not fazed.
On the other hand, parts of the production sacrificed immersion in the story’s tragedy for lighthearted theatrics. Perhaps a nod to how Gen Z is often described as deeply unserious or just to make the point that maybe the teenagers of Verona don’t always need to be that deep, Gold dials up the comedy of the story. Juliet sings “Man of the House” at the end of Act I, which seemed more like a gimmick to advertise the fact that Zegler, an extremely talented singer, would sing during the show. Act II, where the tragedy occurs, was not very emotionally driven. Notably, during Romeo’s death scene, he pours poison into a borg, dramatically chugs it, and then dies hastily. Though I appreciated this clever choice, I was more amused than emotionally invested in Romeo’s very tragic death. There was also a moment where a servant asks the DJ to play “We Are Young” in an effort to lighten the mood and encourages the crowd to sing and clap along which heavily relies on the audience to lean into the silliness of the bit rather than sit with any hard-hitting feelings. This created a dissonance between the actual tragic elements of the story and how Gold wanted to present it. I believe that the tragedy could have been conveyed more meaningfully rather than leaning too much on silliness or humor.
Overall, Connor is truly dazzling as Romeo — literally, because he wears a sparkling suit during the party scene, but also in the way he plays Romeo as humorous, vulnerable and ultimately, a lovesick teenager who is simply down bad for a girl he’s just met. It was a memorable experience to be part of a lively crowd of mostly younger people who were hopefully being converted into Shakespeare fans.
Gold sets a new precedent on how to reimagine old (and arguably overdone) stories by thrusting something equally iconic as it is cliché like Romeo and Juliet into the current zeitgeist. While it may have missed some marks on what it truly means to be Gen Z, it’s undeniable that he cracks the code of how to bring more young people into the Broadway theater, and for Shakespeare at that. Gold understands exactly what the audience wants — swoon-worthy Connor, vocal powerhouse Zegler and a show-stopping balcony scene — all of which are sure to generate an intense online buzz. Plus, it was special to see film and TV powerhouses as big as Connor and Zegler take the Broadway stage in a production that’s as iconic as this one. There’s no question that what makes Romeo and Juliet relatable across generations is not aesthetics, it’s innately embedded in the story itself. Yet, if this is what it takes for a younger audience to understand that, I won’t bite my thumb.
Eirian Huang is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. They can be reached at [email protected].