What happens when you mash up William Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d with a feminist\/non-binary subplot and more than two dozen of Swedish hitmaker Max Martin\u2019s most famous pop songs?<\/p>\n
You get \u201c& Juliet,\u201d the wildly clever 2022 Broadway musical now playing through Sunday at the San Diego Civic Theatre. While the national touring production may not be quite as high-tech as the Broadway staging I saw in 2023, it\u2019s just as funny, well-cast and entertaining.<\/p>\n
Written by David West Read, \u201c& Juliet\u201d imagines what would have happened if Shakespeare\u2019s Juliet decided not to kill herself after waking up in the Capulet crypt to find her new husband, Romeo, dead at her side.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the pitch Shakespeare\u2019s wife, Anne, makes to her husband as he\u2019s putting the finishing touches on his 1595-era romantic tragedy. Women of Anne\u2019s time had no power over their own lives, so she asks her husband to grant his fictional Juliet a happier ending.<\/p>\n
From there, this tongue-in-cheek romp takes off on an adventure to Paris, where Anne joins the sprung-to-life Juliet and her best friend, May, a non-binary person. (As Anne points out to the audience when May arrives, the real Shakespeare wrote several plays that used gender expression as a plot point.)<\/p>\n
Like all jukebox musicals, this show\u2019s book was written to fit the lyrics of songs from the writer\u2019s catalog. Some jukebox musical scriptwriters do such a bad job stretching the plot to incorporate unrelated songs that it\u2019s cringe-worthy. But not Read. His selection of mostly love and breakup songs from Martin\u2019s catalog (the show uses songs from the \u201990s and early 2000s) fit the plot perfectly, and often hilariously.<\/p>\n
For example, Juliet sings the Jessie J hit \u201cDomino\u201d to mark her independence, and then Britney Spears\u2019 \u201cOops! I Did it Again\u201d when she hastily falls in love a second time. Adam Lambert\u2019s solo \u201cWhataya Want From Me\u201d is turned into a breakup duet. And Spears hit \u201cI\u2019m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman\u201d becomes May\u2019s soul-searching ballad. Songs performed by the Backstreet Boys, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Romeo, The Weeknd and even Celine Dion also fit seamlessly into the story.<\/p>\n
As a backdrop for all this contemporary music, the show\u2019s choreography, lighting and glitzy projections combine to create the look and feel of a flashy \u201990s-era boy band concert.<\/p>\n
The show\u2019s talented lead is Fabiola Caraballo Quijada as Juliet. She joined the tour last month just three months after graduating from her Texas high school and winning the National High School Musical Theatre Awards (known as \u201cThe Jimmys\u201d). She\u2019s got sass, personality and a big singing voice, and because of her age and petite stature she suits the role of 13-year-old Juliet.<\/p>\n
Also strong are Kathryn Allison as Juliet\u2019s maid Ang\u00e9lique, the affable CJ Eldred as Shakespeare and endearingly funny Crystal Kellogg as Anne.<\/p>\n
At the performance I attended, there were many older season subscribers who were not familiar with Martin\u2019s music before the show. But the songs are so catchy, upbeat and toe-tapping, they were just as enthused as the Millennials and Gen Z members of the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u2018& Juliet\u2019<\/p>\n
When: 8 p.m. Oct. 17; 2 and 8 p.m. Oct. 18; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Oct. 19<\/p>\n
Where:\u00a0San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown<\/p>\n
Tickets:\u00a0$57.25-$87<\/p>\n