& Juliet

 

& Juliet, Shaftesbury Theatre, 2022.

Cast: Grace Mouat, Cassidy Janson, Oliver Tompsett, David Bedella, Alex Thomas-Smith, Jordan Luke Gage, Melanie La Barrie, Tim Mahendran, Jocasta Almgill, Ivan De Freitas, Roshani Abbey, Rhian Duncan, Kieran Lai, Nathan Lorainey-Dineen, Antoine Murray-Straughan, Kerri Norville, Kirstie Skivington, Alex Tranter, Rhys Wilkinson, Josh Baker, Abiola Efunshile, Jaye Marshall, Billy Nevers, Christopher Parkinson, Sophie Usher.

Music & lyrics: Max Martin & friends

Book: David West Read

Director: Luke Shepphard

This was so good I have no idea why it took me so long to go and see it. And when it closed I went to see it on tour. The songs are of course brilliant and used very cleverly. I've always got time for stuff that reimagines Shakespeare - I think he's a bit like the late Queen, in that he's incredibly familiar and yet we know nothing about him so it's easy to project stuff onto him (like Hamnet, recently).

I'm reminded that the friend I went with didn't pay me for the ticket and isn't it funny how people who don't work for money are always the ones who are odd about money.