Theatre Trip: &Juliet (finally!)

 &JULIET

Shaftesbury Theatre
Date: 7 October (Thursday), 7:30pm
Seats: Stalls, P3-4
(Seen with Jess!)

Understudies: Anne Hathaway (Kirstie Skivington)

Finally, I get to see &Juliet! I had had tickets to this show twice already... But the first time I had a migraine and the second we were due to see it at the end of March 2020, and that got cancelled by the pandemic. But finally, our time has come!

We got great Stalls seats in row P. The Shaftesbury is smaller than I expected and so row P is actually quite close! Seats 3-4 are right on the right hand side, so there was a tiny bit on stage that we couldn't see but that didn't matter for anything important in the show.

The staging of this show is very simple. The stage isn’t big, and is framed as a musical within a play so the staff is kept pretty simple. It all looks great and it definitely doesn’t need big set pieces to hit home. The main feature is, of course, the music! This show is a jukebox musical, but rather than by an artist it’s about the composer/producer. Max Martin wrote and produced a huge amount of music since the 90s, so there is a lot of options to choose from. This means that it doesn’t feel at all like a jukebox musical, because the music fits so well with the plot of the show. But people my age who grew up in the 90s and 00s, you would recognise all the songs! So it’s such a trip hearing these songs in a new context.

I know a few actors in this show. Grace Mouat was in the chorus (with a leading role and a few mini solos tonight), and I remember her really well from being one of the backup Queens in Six. I really enjoyed watching her perform! Juliet’s father was played by a guy who I recognised instantly as Ivan de Freitas. The last time I saw him perform was in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Barbican, and he was very good. Mel la Barrie I remember from even further back, having seen her as Madame Morrible in Wicked, back in 2008 on my gap year. She was absolutely phenomenal in her role here and I was nowhere near prepared for her to be so amazing, or to be able to sing so well with a thick Jamaican accent! And David Bedella played opposite her, with a deep voice that instantly took me back to 2008. He was in the production of Chess then that I went to in the Albert Hall, playing Molokov, but in this he was so different! His deep voice and fake French accent were so good and he was really really awesome.

Romeo was played by Jordan Luke Gage, freshly returned from Heathers on the West End. He was so poppy and I felt like he really fit the character super well. His characterisation was really good (although Romeo is a terrible character - predictably, given the 'girl power' theme of the show) and of course, his voice is phenomenal! Miriam Teak-Lee played the lead role of Juliet and she was also amazing. Her voice at times, had too many riffs and felt a little out of place on a musical stage, but she was very very good. I would like to see her again so that I can hear if she does the same performance night after night, or if the riffs change!

The actors I was most excited about, are actually two who I have seen since 2008 when I first saw them as Fiyero and Elphaba in Wicked! Oliver Tompsett plays William Shakespeare and he was so amazing. His voice is like butter, even with a Cockney accent and they gave him a lot of great puns, on Shakespeares name and works, which I appreciated a lot. Sadly, the other person I was very excited about was out for the show. Cassidy Janson (who I have seen as Elphaba as well as many more!) is cast as Anne Hathaway, arguably the most important character in the show - as she is the one who interferes with Shakespeare's original plot and leads it astray. Sadly she wasn't in on this evening and so the role was played by Kirtie Skivington. I felt that she was very good, but especially during the big number I was thinking about how phenomenal CJ would be in that role. Also I would like to see the chemistry between CJ and Oli as they have history together!

I will definitely be going again though, as I messaged my colleague as I was walking out and told her that she would love it. In response, I have booked 3 front row tickets for myself and 2 colleagues for just before the end of the school year - and in the same week as Hamilton! It will be such fun to experience this on the front row.