{"id":112344,"date":"2026-01-09T21:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/112344\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T21:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:59:11","slug":"broadway-in-orlando-review-juliet-brings-back-the-past-in-more-ways-than-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/112344\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadway in Orlando review: \u2018& Juliet\u2019 brings back the past in more ways than one"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Fabiola Caraballo Quijada and Joseph Torres in the North American Tour of & Juliet Credit: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade<\/p>\n

We all have those playlists from our past that haunt us: the guilty-pleasure songs from our youth that won\u2019t stop repeating inside our heads, reminding us of our first dance and\/or heartbreak. Blend that with the Shakespearean stories drilled into our souls since childhood, and you\u2019ve got Broadway\u2019s & Juliet (running now through Jan. 11 at the Dr. Phillips Center\u2019s Walt Disney Theater) which brings all those memories together in a refreshing spectacle of humor and sentimentality.<\/p>\n

David West Read\u2019s Tony-nominated book is a revisionist reimagining of Romeo and Juliet where the heroine finds herself, instead of choosing to commit suicide over her short-lived boyfriend. Director Luke Sheppard serves up the story with a bit of an urban feel, adding an Olde English chaser. The real hero of the show is recent high school graduate Fabiola Caraballo Quijada as the title character; at such a young age, she embodies a strong woman who can make her own choices, even when things go horribly wrong. Revamped songs written by Max Martin \u2014 the hitmaker behind Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry and others \u2014 range from angsty rock to uplifting pop, bringing you right there with her as she struggles to become her own woman.<\/p>\n

The buzz among the opening audience was all about Joey Fatone being in the show. The two-time second-place winner of Dancing With the Stars has proven that he\u2019s never taken himself too seriously, and aging *NSYNC fans (myself included) were there to see him show his stuff; little did we know that he would only spend a total of about 25 minutes onstage. Many audience members left during intermission, unaware that if they had waited for the second act, they would have gotten more of the Fatone that they had come to see. In his role as \u201cLance,\u201d a French man trying to get his son married, Fatone is charismatic even with a humorous cheesy French accent. The \u201cDeBois Band\u201d performance toward the end was the type of thing that makes the inner teenager in all of us scream with glee.<\/p>\n

Despite sharing billing with someone famous, Crystal Kellogg steals the show as Anne, Shakespeare\u2019s wife. As a \u201csupporting\u201d character, it\u2019s a joy to see her take center stage, and Kellogg brought not only heart and strength but also playfulness to scenes that might have otherwise fallen flat. And Nico Ochoa\u2019s gender-fluid performance as Juliet\u2019s nonbinary friend May was intriguing, and left the audience longing for more.<\/p>\n

Soutra Gilmour\u2019s scenic design is joyfully over-the-top, featuring a few characters descending from the ceiling on chandeliers that made the audience cheer. The music is a reminder of the past, with the cast often performing a well-known song better than the original artists. And Paloma Young\u2019s costumes are a mix of new and old, with corsets added to track suits, Elizabethan ruff collars, mini-backpacks and short skirts, all in bright sparkling colors. Add to all of that Howard Hudson\u2019s flashing lights and confetti cannons, and it\u2019s like a \u201990s rave in 2026.<\/p>\n

In the end, & Juliet empowers by showing us that life is made of choices. Do you choose who you are supposed to be or who you want to be? Either way, it\u2019s a fun journey to get there \u2026 even if it only takes four days.<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.<\/p>\n

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\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fabiola Caraballo Quijada and Joseph Torres in the North American Tour of & Juliet Credit: Evan Zimmerman for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[55972,139,141,140,3697,57114],"class_list":{"0":"post-112344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-juliet","9":"tag-orlando","10":"tag-orlando-headlines","11":"tag-orlando-news","12":"tag-orlando-theater","13":"tag-theater-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}