{"id":819076,"date":"2026-07-22T17:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T17:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819076\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T17:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T17:46:09","slug":"an-open-letter-and-date-night-recommendation-to-justin-trudeau-and-katy-perry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819076\/","title":{"rendered":"An open letter \u2013 and date-night recommendation \u2013 to Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Brandon Antonio as Fran\u00e7ois and Vanessa Sears as Juliet in & Juliet.Dahlia Katz\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Dear Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry,<\/p>\n

Are you busy for the next two weeks?<\/p>\n

I mean, yes, I\u2019m sure you are: You are a former prime minister and an active pop-princess-slash-occasional-space-voyager<\/a>. I\u2019m sure your schedules are upsetting on a visceral level \u2013 and despite how much you post about each other on Instagram, I\u2019m sure private date nights are rare.<\/p>\n

But on the off chance you have a free evening before Aug. 2, let me implore you to catch the all-Canadian production of & Juliet<\/a>, which will end its too-short run next Sunday.<\/p>\n

Listen: I don\u2019t make a habit of thinking about you two when I go to the theatre. (It\u2019s nothing personal; I don\u2019t think much about Lady Gaga or Stephen Harper while I\u2019m working, either.) <\/p>\n

But at this weekend\u2019s singalong performance of & Juliet, it occurred to me that you ought to see this show. And while you won\u2019t have as much fun as I did on Sunday \u2013 I think I want to experience every jukebox musical as a singalong from now on \u2013 you might be surprised by how much you enjoy yourselves.<\/p>\n

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Justin Trudeau, left, and Katy Perry attend the Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour – Live from Paris world premiere in New York on May 8.Charles Sykes\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Katy \u2013 can I call you Katy? \u2013 I\u2019m sure you know that three of your songs are used in this show. But on Sunday, I was reminded just how well the creators of & Juliet have re-appropriated your work \u2013 and Swedish producer Max Martin\u2019s back catalogue more broadly \u2013 to tell a new version of Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet doesn\u2019t die and instead gets to experience the delights of girlhood in a haze of confetti and 2010s pop music.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve no doubt you know all this. But it\u2019s possible you\u2019ve forgotten that your song Teenage Dream \u2013 a favourite of mine, I\u2019ll admit \u2013 helps to explore a romantic plotline between Juliet\u2019s nurse, Ang\u00e9lique (Sarah Nairne), and her on-again-off-again French lover, Lance (David Silvestri). <\/p>\n

As the lovebirds sing your song after sleeping together, they recognize that they\u2019re not too old to fall in love again, or to dance as if no one\u2019s watching. Even better: Lance, played so brilliantly for laughs by Silvestri, speaks with a swoony French accent that can\u2019t help but make Ang\u00e9lique weak in the knees.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll wager a guess that the above might hit close to home. <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Trudeau \u2013 something tells me my editors won\u2019t let me call you Justin \u2013 you\u2019ve had a weird couple of years. But surely you still believe in the power of Canadian arts and culture, the singular talent of our writers and performers. & Juliet\u2019s sweet script is written by a Canadian \u2013 Schitt\u2019s Creek\u2019s David West Read \u2013 and, more to the point, its all-Canadian cast puts Broadway\u2019s to shame. <\/p>\n

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The all-Canadian production of & Juliet ends its run Aug. 2.Dahlia Katz\/Supplied<\/p>\n

On Sunday \u2013 explicitly billed as a singalong performance \u2013 the audience quieted on its own accord whenever Juliet (Vanessa Sears) began to sing. Sears hasn\u2019t just settled into the role since the Toronto production opened last December \u2013 she\u2019s improved tenfold<\/a>, and on Sunday, I almost couldn\u2019t believe what I was hearing. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve ever witnessed a more impressive performance on a Mirvish stage: As Juliet, Sears is confident, clear-toned and funny, and her work deserves to be seen by as many people as possible before & Juliet says goodbye.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where you two come in.<\/p>\n

By now, you\u2019ve made clear you like live music: You go to Coachella!<\/a> You hop!<\/a> All in, you seem to be a fun, affable couple, and judging by our former prime minister\u2019s recent fashion choices, you seem to be in a phase of embracing your inner youth.<\/p>\n

& Juliet, in all its silly, confetti-cannoning glory, has been a bright spot in Toronto theatre since its pre-Broadway tryout four years ago. It\u2019s the jukebox musical by which I now measure all jukebox musicals \u2013 while its script is unapologetically goofy, it\u2019s far less thin than its bio-musical contemporaries<\/a> \u2013 and its all-star cast couldn\u2019t be working harder. Even understudy Tiera Lee Watts, who played Anne Hathaway (no, not that one) at Sunday\u2019s matinee, offered a performance so powerful I couldn\u2019t quite comprehend it as I mouthed along to the songs that have dominated Top-40 airwaves for most of my life.<\/p>\n

The all-Canadian production of & Juliet should have run forever. (Or at least longer than the eight months it got.) But since Mirvish moved up its original closing date by three weeks, now\u2019s your only chance.<\/p>\n

Even if you\u2019re not Katy Perry or Justin Trudeau (though I really hope you are, and that you jam out in your seats to Perry\u2019s hits Roar and I Kissed a Girl), catch & Juliet before it\u2019s gone for good. You\u2019ll leave with a newfound appreciation for Canadian theatre \u2013 and, in the case of our former prime minister, a fresh perspective on a certain someone\u2019s oeuvre of glitter-dusted anthems.<\/p>\n