Broadway review ‘& Juliet’: Hit maker Max Martin’s jukebox music hits the balcony

What if Julia had lived? What if she hadn’t given her 14 years of life for a wild boy she barely knew? What if she hadn’t let the reckless youthful narcissism warped by patriarchy and male violence lead her and led a full, happy, perhaps even peaceful life into supposed adulthood in 14th-century Verona.

Directed by Luke Sheppard and choreographed by Jennifer Weber, & Julia, the new jukebox musical with songs by super producer Max Martin (“and friends”, as read in the credits), with a book by Schott’s Creek Author David West Read postulates an answer to all these questions, although “quiet” never quite comes into the equation. No, if Juliet had lived, this musical, which premieres tonight on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theater, suggests that she and her friends would spend much of their time belting out ballads about empowerment and lectures about pride, identity and others within earshot. singing important insights. hold 21st century.

Maybe, we think, these kids really do have a future – maybe they’ll grow up and have a much better future. six.

It’s not that & Julia it’s awkward – it’s not. Somewhere beneath the bombastic and repetitive and over-the-top approach of the first minute lies a sweet(ish) and clever(ish) story, reaching out to the marginalized and not casual fans of the music of Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry doesn’t bring. , Kesha, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Pink and Justin Timberlake get a chance to hear their favorite songs in a musical that makes no secret of its identity: early on, a jukebox takes a proud place on the set. .

It’s no coincidence that these songs have something or someone in common: Martin, the super-producer whose uncompromising approach to building anthems and ballads and upbeat tunes of defiance and self-defense have heralded careers for countless superstars and countless teenage fans.

That Martin’s productions use an easily marketable – if not so easily copied – formula – relatively uncomplicated melodies, lyrics with lots of repetition, a firm message and not too many nuances, together with a sense of dramatic construction that rises halfway up jump up and carry on – is no secret to anyone who has heard of his hits. in other words, all living things within earshot of a radio, television or streaming service. Songs like Spear’s “Since U Been Gone” and “Baby One More Time,” and Perry’s “Roar” and “I Kissed a Girl” are fine companions in their own right, and at best (as millions of fans have learned) a soundtrack of sorts of the generation. To discuss their success would be short sighted and foolish.

But presented together, one at a time, the songs can go from inspiring to mind-boggling in record time. And they do.

Read’s book ties together the various songs Martin wrote, a pastiche that shows very little of the poignancy that Read and his co-authors brought to the subversion. Schott’s Creek. Here, Read has created a kind of instructional manual on feminism, self-determination, empowerment, and chosen identity, worthy themes except rendered here with the subtlety of a high school pep rally.

The premise is this: will Shakespeare (Stark Sands) and his deeply angry and angry wife Anne Hathaway (Betsy Wolfe) debate the bard’s latest play, Romeo and Juliet. Anne insists on a rewrite of her plan to let Juliet live, take control of her life and free herself from the work of a wild and irresponsible young man and from the patriarchy itself.

Anne immediately sets out to rescue Juliet (Lorna Courtney) and some friends from Verona and send them to the liberated (and funnier) Paris. First stop: a nightclub where one of those friends, the non-binary May (Justin David Sullivan), meets a literal Francois (Philippe Arroyo), a confused, fatherly young man who thinks he only has eyes for Julia. The situation sends May on a seemingly overly emotional downward spiral that leads to May’s performance of Spears’ “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman” — an initially wise decision that soon feels like so much here. loaded with weight.

Will and Anne keep throwing themselves into the action, sometimes individually, the better to build a plot or romance behind the back of his or her writing partner, who may not fully agree. So we have the wand aging of Juliet and Co. I already made it up: the return of Romeo (in the review run, a play and error that Daniel Maldonado brings in for Ben Jackson Walker), which Will decided he wanted to do after all, didn’t really die.

Also around Paris is Julia’s nurse Angelique (Melanie La Barrie), who has a secret romantic past with Francois’ strict father Lance (Paulo Szot, the opera star, who uses his baritone effectively and often hilariously).

All this star transition plays out in Soutra Gilmour’s striking, rather clever set design – much is made of the missing “Romeo” from a large marquee-like sign. Paloma Young’s costume design features the expected mix of ages past and present, which captures the dazzling glamor of the six plaster. Howard Hudson’s lighting design, Gareth Owen’s sound design and Andrzej Goulding’s video and projection design are all top notch.

The cast, by no means without charm, are tasked with taking their performances to the skies—to the balconies, so to speak—and the heist can crunch (La Barrie can call out the schtick as a nurse and let the focus fall on her fine singing voice). Wolfe, another great singer, delivers her dialogue with relentless archery, and Sullivan, as the non-binary May, conveys a sweetness all too often eroded by melodramas. Only Sands as Shakespeare and especially the very impressive Courtney as the little girl who is no longer lost manage to find the right balance between silliness and emotion.