After three years, the new Shakespearean jukebox musical “& Juliet” is still wowing full audiences at The Shaftesbury Theatre in the west end. The tragic love tale has once again been remastered into a sensation of a story. This time it has been turned into a female lead empowering musical focused on the question “What if Juliet had decided to live?”
& Juliet is performed in The Shaftesbury theatre which is an absolutely breathe taking theatre dating back to 1911 when it was first opened. Since then a large variety of shows have been performed there from timeless musicals to gothic retellings this theatre has seen it all. But & Juliet is certainly not just another show performed in this theatre.
Despite what many peoples’ pre conceptions of Jukebox musicals may be, this musical is definitely not lacking in plot. The musical follows Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare’s wife) as she decides to put a spin on her husband’s timeless tale. Instead of Juliet killing herself after finding Romeo dead, she lives on to discover the bounty of love affairs Romeo had before her. She chooses to not allow herself to wallow away after Romeo’s death and escapes to Paris alongside some of her closest friends. Unlike the past tellings of Romeo and Juliet, the story has just begun for our heroine Juliet.
But we mustn’t forget & Juliet is first and foremost a jukebox musical including much beloved pop songs from the past couple of decades including “Oops!…I did it again” by Britney Speers, “Roar” by Katy Perry and many more. And the songs were never a miss as even after the musical you could hear people mumbling these catchy hits to themselves.
And this musical is truly for all the family as it was obvious children were enjoying the story and music just as much as their parents. You could even hear a couple exclaiming that “this is the best show I’ve seen”. This accompanied with their grins of pure delight it is safe to say this is a show for all ages.
And it’s reviews truly reflect this as well with Whatsonstage saying that “you won’t find many better nights out in the west end” and the sun saying “With a soundtrack this good, other west end production can compete.” Which I’m sure almost every audience member will be able to agree with.
& Juliet is truly an outstanding Shakespearean reimagination which will certainly still wow the west end for many more years. It is truly worth a watch and will be a shock if you don’t thoroughly enjoy enjoy every second of it.
