& JULIET

 

&JULIET.

Music and lyrics by Max Martin and Friends. Book by David West Read.

Directed by Charlotte Morphett, James Colhurst-Close. Choregraphed by Charlotte Morphett and James Colhurst-Close. Musical director Callum Tolhurst-Close. Set design Charlotte Morphett and James Tolhurst-Close. Costume design  Fiona Leach. Lighting design Jacob Aquilina. Sound design Telia Janson.

Band: Conductor/keys Callum Tolhurst-Close. Assistant Musical Director Sam Hutchinson. Keys 2 Thomas Tregenza. Guitar Juniper Dixon. Bass Lizzy Collier. Drums Brandon Reid. Violin Laura Lay.

Cast: Juliet- Chloe Stevenson, Anne Hathaway-Vanessa Valois, William Shakespeare-Jackson Gibbs ,Angelique – Katie Lis, May-Joshua Kirk, Francois Tate Sissian, Lance - David Santolin, Romeo – Mackinley Brown.

Shakespeare’s Players: Caitlin Bissett, Amy Campbell, Charlotte Cox, Grace Forbes, Deborah Greenbaum,  Tori Hunt.Charlotte Jackson,Darcy Kinsella,Melissa Markos,Kara Murphy, Lara Pulciani,Milly Ratcliffe,Sam Thomson,Rachel Thornton, Alyssa Wallace.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Mackinley Brown as Romeo. Chloe Stevenson as Juliet in &JULIET

I have always come to expect a high octane, pulse pumping production from a Free Rain musical. & Juliet, currently performing at the Q Theatre is no exception. It explodes with youthful energy from a young and enormously talented cast. What is different however is this jukebox musical’s upside down take on William Shakespeare’s tragic tale of the two star-crossed lovers. Romeo and Juliet has been a popular favourite with theatre and film makers. Think of Zefferelli’s elegant 1968 film or Baz Luhrman’s dynamic take on the classic play set in the volatile suburbs of LA. Think of Bell Shakespeare’s many contemporary versions. But with Max Martin and Friends’ music and lyrics and a book by David West Read &Juliet twists the tragic tale for a 21^st century audience and asks What If?  What if Juliet (Chloe Stevenson) doesn’t die? What if Romeo does? And what if Anne Hathaway has her way and gets to write her version of events without the will of husband  Will (Jackson Gibbs)? And there you have the premise of a new and ingeniously quirky version of a tragedy turned into a romantic comedy.

 

Jackson Gibbs as William Shakespeare. Vanessa Valois as Anne Hathaway

 Joshua Kirk as May. Tate Sissien as Francois and David Santolin  as Lance in & JULIET 

You’ll have to go to the show To find out what happens when Juliet heads to Paris with her nurse Angelique (Katie Lis) and friends gay May (Joshua Kirk) and April (Vanessa Valois) or when Francois du Bois (Tate Sissian) finds true love with a kiss from May or Angelique tumbles under the bedclothes with Francois’s widowed Dad, Lance (David Santolin) and when Romeo (Mackinley Brown) resurrects. If you’re into a night of fun filled reinvention of the Romeo and Juliet story from a powerfully feminist point of view then you may be assured of seeing Shakespeare’s play in a very different light and what next – Cleopatra and Antony?, Cressida and Troilus? and what may then happen to all the Henrys, and eponymous male titles like Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet and the Two Gentlemen of Verona?

Juliet and friends go to Paris

Co-directors Charlotte Morphett and James Tolhurst-Close’s set design already sets the scene for a full on American pop musical . A juke Box stands stage right. One can just see the members of the band behind two large backing flats covered with scrawled text. Jacob Aquilina’s lollypop pink lighting design highlights &JULIET  like a neon sign above a Diner Car. Players enter during the acknowledgement of Country. Two jerk into a hip hop routine. Another backflips.  Another slides into a break dance belly wave. Suddenly as if charged with electrifying energy  the ensemble’s chorus of Shakespeare’s Players burst into life with the show’s opening number Larger Than Life. And in that moment I know that this is a show that is going to take me where no show has gone before. This show is not only about changing a story to tell another character’s story. It is about how history hides herstory. Even mighty literature can be accomplice to that concealment. 

 

Katie Lis as Angelique

One earnest truth remains constant in this bubbly and infectious musical. “The course of true love never did run smooth” On the surface, &Juliet may be a fairyfloss display of sugar candy sitcom but directors Charlotte Morphett and James Tolhurst-Close and Musical director Callum Tolhurst-Close and the creative team with musicians and actors have created a show that had the audience clapping and cheering one moment and listening and looking intently the next. There are images that evoke instant reaction like Fiona Leach’s Gothic attire for a granite faced Lord and Lady Capulet (Sam Thomson and Grace Forbes). There are scenes of tender emotion between Sissian’s Francois and Kirk’s May. There are moments of gentle female companionship between Valois’s Hathaway and Stevenson’s Juliet. There are scenes of hilarious comedy between Lis’s Nurse and Santolin’s Lance. And there is the wit and wile of the battle of the sexes between Hathaway and Gibbon’s Shakespeare. There is more to this show than may at first appear.

 In a show full of excellent performances and stand out production values, Stevenson headlines the show with powerhouse energy, talent and personality. A look at the song list indicates the enormous demand of the show on the performer playing Juliet and Stevenson rises to the challenge. There is a moment in Stronger when she asserts her independent control over her life that I captured a glimpse of star quality and the promise of a future that could take her far. This is in a company of excellent committed performers.

Chloe Stevenson as Juliet and the Shakespeare Players

Comparison can be odious and Free Rain’s ebullient production of & Juliet leaves me contemplating the vices and the virtues of Shakespeare’s tragic tale of woe. The power of Shakespeare’s quill still inspires an American jukebox musical more than four hundred years later to instruct us in Love's lessons for themodern age. Free Rain’s &Juliet is definitely a show to love.

Photos by Janelle McMenamin