What’s in a Borg? Romeo & Juliet’s Youthful Return to Broadway

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.

Girlboss or Gimmick: A Feminist Reboot of Shakespeare’s Classic

It’s a primal rite of passage for virtually every ninth-grader: ogling at the projector screen in English class while watching the 1996 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, starring Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio. What else would you expect when you put a bunch of angsty, chatty teenagers in front of a steamy film about two lovers who marry the day after they first meet? As you’d guess, the back of the classroom was alive with snarky remarks from witty students eager to comment on the dramatic entanglement between the Montagues and Capulets. But what if those remarks were spun into an alternate plot where Juliet finds Romeo dead and chooses not to follow him in death, but instead breathes a sigh of relief, ready to run off to Paris and live the life she’s always dreamed of? A feminist ending crafted by none other than Anne Hathaway — Shakespeare’s wife?

PONTIN | ‘In Fair Verona’

“Romeo and Juliet” is a story that feels universal. I feel it would be an oversight, however, to designate it purely as a love story. It is an account of deep-rooted tension, of superfluous strife and of needless violence, with love riding along in a sidecar.