‘& Juliet’: It's the musical written by David West Read which puts a new spin on the Shakespearean timeless love story, with a ‘what if’ scenario imagining that if at the end of writing 'Romeo & Juliet', William Shakespeare‘s wife walked into his rehearsal room and said “wait a minute, why is Juliet ending her life?!”
What if, instead, she goes looking for love and has a second chance of her story?
This is, essentially, Juliet minus Romeo. '& Juliet' has already enjoyed hugely successful seasons in Melbourne and Perth, and is now playing at Sydney's Lyric Theatre.
Nominated for nine Tony Awards – including Best Musical and Best Book Of A Musical – the show, directed by Luke Sheppard, is brought to life not through the classic Prokofiev masterpiece we’ve heard with the original play, but instead through an array of iconic pop anthems.
David West Read - Image © Natalia Dolan
In a playlist curated by David himself as he was in recovery from a head concussion which saw him unable to look at screens for a while, David had noticed the music of today’s time had a strong theme of love, and thought up the idea to have it placed together to create the musical. The show uses the catalogue of Max Martin, arguably one of the greatest pop music writer/producers of all time, who wrote music for some of the biggest names in the industry such as Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and NSYNC to Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi, Ariana Grande and more.
This isn’t the first time a play or ballet from this era has been reworked, as we’ve seen with productions such as Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet, 'Swan Lake', where Odette is transformed into human form and lives happily ever after, rather than remaining a swan and facing the ultimate death to break the spell, and Hans Christian Anderson’s evil Snow Queen in his 1844 fairytale novel, adapted into the popular Disney film which saw her become Elsa in 'Frozen'.
“The original ['Romeo & Juliet'] of course is great and everyone’s seen it and many people, like myself, have studied it in school but it’s definitely a bit of a downer,” David West Read says. “The musical is more of an uplifting and joyous, inspiring, romantic comedy, and it’s been really great to reinvent the story as well as reinventing all of these great pop songs.”
Image © Daniel Boud
“It’s a really fun time at the theatre, beautiful set, beautiful costumes, beautiful dancing, incredible singing, it’s funny. . . And it’s a bit of a cliché, but it really is a show for everyone. Audiences of all ages are coming and it’s a joyous time at the theatre, so I hope people get to check it out here in Sydney.”
David is also the Writer and Executive Producer of Golden Globe and ten-time Emmy Award-winning TV series, 'Schitt’s Creek', and also has a show on Apple TV+ called 'The Big Door Prize', with the second season being released this April. Alongside this, David is currently developing another new ten-episode comedy series for Apple starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.
“I really like working in both TV and theatre and hope to continue working in both mediums. It’s definitely exciting to be on streamers where your shows can be seen all over the world, because it used to be much more restrictive,” David says. “An American show would only be seen by American audiences and then maybe years later people would be able to get the DVDs, but now you have the ability to have a show in so many countries thanks to Apple TV+ and Netflix and other streamers, so to come to Australia on the other side of the world and have people who have seen your work is pretty thrilling!”
Image © Daniel Boud
David is a proud Canadian who currently lives in LA. This is the first time he’s been to Australia and he’s enjoying it, also travelling to Melbourne for some sight-seeing for a couple of days, where the Australian production of '& Juliet' began.
“The show started in Manchester and then London in 2019 and performed for three years with the same cast, and then the North American premiere was in Toronto with a seperate cast who moved on to Broadway, which the show is still running on now. We also have this Australian cast who started in Melbourne and then went to Singapore and then to Perth, and now Sydney. . . So it’s been really fun to see this show spreading its wings around the world.”
“The Australian cast is all Australian talent and they of course perform the show with Australian accents, which is the first time I’ve heard it that way. They’re a really incredible cast, including Lorinda May Merrypor, Rob Mills, Amy Lehpamer, Casey Donovan, Hayden Tee, Blake Appelqvist, Jesse Dutlow and Yashith Fernando.
“Australia has a tonne of talent and the audiences have been having wonderful reactions to the show so far, so it’s been really fun to see it here.”
'& Juliet' is now playing at Sydney's Lyric Theatre.
