The latest West End hit to grace the Regent stage is & Juliet which is making its first UK tour.
A juke box musical that showcases the songwriting talent of Max Martin the show considers what might have happened if Shakespeare had not decided to kill off the two star-crossed lovers from his famous drama.
Certainly, Anne Hathaway (Lara Denning) is unhappy with the ending to the original Romeo and Juliet and suggests to her husband Will (Jay McGuinness of The Wanted) that an alternative version of events could be fashioned. The playwright is prepared to go along with this and, with his wife’s help, allows Juliet (Gerardine Sacdalan) to survive.
In order to be free from her family’s influence Juliet has to flee from the streets of Verona and head for Paris but has to have company to help her to survive. Will is written into the tale as driver of the carriage and Anne becomes a friend known as April while the other two companions are the non-binary May (Jordan Broatch) and nurse Angelique (Sandra Marvin).
On arrival in Paris, the company manages to gain entry to a ball thrown by Lance Dubois (Lee Latchford-Evans of Steps) to find a partner for his son Francois (Kyle Cox). With Juliet taking a liking to Francois and Lance realizing that Angelique was a former crush of his it seems that the paths to romance for the various characters are clearly cut and a marriage between Juliet and Francois is hastily arranged.
However, Will feels that there should always be complications in his works and this is caused when Romeo (Benjamin Jackson Walker) is resurrected from the grave. This causes a major fall-out between Shakespeare and his wife who breaks her husband’s quill to ensure that the characters find their own way to happiness.
With Anne revealing that her marriage is far from perfect, May revealing his feelings towards Francois, Angelique playing hard to get and Juliet unsure that she wants to renew her marriage to Romeo there are difficult romantic routes to follow.
& Juliet is to be commended for its presentation of non-binary issues and the promotion of girl power and these bring regular whoops of delight but the audience has to be alert to keep up with the pace of the storyline.
However, there is little time for any confusion to take hold. Make no mistake, the show has a banging score and it is all perfectly delivered.
McGuinness shows all of the vocal technique required and as a former winner of Strictly he really fills a pair of dancing shoes while Latchford-Evans shows that he has abilities beyond his role in Steps and there is great chemistry between himself and Marvin who brings her extensive singing talents to the fore. Sacdalan gives great energy and powerful vocals to her role and Denning brings the house down with an emotional rendition of That’s The Way It Is.
Broatch, Cox and Walker all bring passion to their parts and they are supported by a very talented Company of singers and dancers.
With great choreography from Jennifer Weber, a fabulous set designed by Soutra Gilmour, exciting video and animation work from Andrzej Goulding, lovely costumes designed by Paloma Young and a live band under the direction of Marcus Carter-Adams, Director Luke Sheppard has designed a show that brought great joy to the audience and truly deserved its standing ovation.
We all wonder” What If?” at some time in our lives and & Juliet is a very interesting concept. Above all, though, the audience can sit back and enjoy. This production is sheer FUN.
& Juliet has a running time of approximately 2hours 30 and continue until May 17th. For ticket information contact atgtickets.com/stoke
