{"id":117950,"date":"2026-01-14T16:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/117950\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:22:07","slug":"a-pop-fueled-rewrite-that-dazzles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/117950\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pop-Fueled Rewrite That Dazzles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some shows make you smile. Others make you tap your foot, as you smile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c& Juliet\u201d\u00a0does it all, and then hands you a glittering dose of nostalgia and asks the bigger question:\u00a0What happens when a young woman refuses to die for love and decides to live for herself instead?<\/p>\n

I had the pleasure of catching the performance at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts last evening, and the production felt like a joyful collision of Shakespearean wit, Y2K pop sensibilities, and modern-day female empowerment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rather than revisiting the doom and gloom of Verona,\u00a0\u201c& Juliet\u201d\u00a0invites us to imagine a new narrative\u2014one where Juliet gets a second act, a louder voice, and the freedom to choose her own ending.<\/p>\n

The music is the beating heart of the show. Those instantly recognizable pop hits, delivered with Broadway-worthy vocal chops, triggered memories of car rides, school dances, and late-night singalongs in the 1990s and early 2000s.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fabiola Caraballo Quijada and the company of \u201c& JULIET\u201d (Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)<\/p>\n

The arrangements pack a theatrical punch, giving beloved songs new emotional layers and charming humor. The show is playful, but never at the expense of sincerity.<\/p>\n

What struck me most was how effortlessly the show balances its glitter with grit. Beneath the rhinestones and choreography lies a message that feels decidedly current: write your own destiny, love who you love, and refuse to dim your light for anyone\u2019s comfort.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Juliet\u2019s journey becomes symbolic, relatable, and, at times, surprisingly moving.<\/p>\n

The cast delivered that narrative with infectious enthusiasm. Their vocals, comedic timing that landed with precision, and the staging provided an energy that made it hard for the entire theater to not sing along, dance a bit and smile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s rare to see a reimagined classic that honors its source material while boldly rewriting its rules, and\u00a0\u201c& Juliet\u201d\u00a0pulls it off with charm to spare.<\/p>\n

Energetic, empowering, and impossibly fun, this is the kind of show that reminds you why live theater still matters.<\/p>\n

\u201c& Juliet\u201d runs through Jan. 25 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; browardcenter.org\/events\/detail\/and-juliet-2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some shows make you smile. Others make you tap your foot, as you smile.\u00a0 \u201c& Juliet\u201d\u00a0does it all,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-117950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117950","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=117950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}