‘Romeo + Juliet’ Broadway Review: Kit Connor And Rachel Zegler Take The Bard To A Proper Rave-Up

Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers sure are getting a work out these days, what with Tom Holland’s recent stab in London, the enduringly popular girl power take of & Juliet and no doubt one or two others percolating somewhere even as I write. But no matter – make room, plenty of room, for Sam Gold‘s Romeo + Juliet rave-up starring the compelling and well-matched Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, opening tonight on Broadway.

Pumped up by Jack Antonoff’s thumping music (the several songs he wrote includes the new “Man of the House,” performed by Zegler), the play, occasionally set in something akin to an Elizabethan dance club complete with DJ and some 21st Century moves, is perhaps the best use in ages of Circle in the Square’s often troublesome in-the-round staging. Even when Connor’s Romeo and Zegler’s Juliet square off from opposite sides of the venue, their invisible chains – hormones, by another term – are magic.

The casting of Connor, riding high with his immensely popular series Heartstopper, and Zegler, who played Juliet by any other name in Spielberg’s West Side Story, could have been little more than stunt casting for a bring-in-the-kids bid, but the exemplary Gold and his A-list roster of producers knows better than to toy with such silliness. Connor, Zegler and a cast that also includes Gabby Beans, Tommy Dorfman, Daniel Bravo Hernández and others are engaging from beginning to end.

Without tinkering with Shakespeare’s language, this R+J is full of youthful energy – and, what’s more, contemporary youthful energy. Watch how the young cast gestures, maneuvers, gets their bodies from one place to another – courtesy of movement direction and choreography by Sonya Tayeh – and the effect is entirely fresh. A small example: Connor doesn’t climb up a balcony or a trellis – he jumps up and grabs ahold Juliet’s bed platform hovering high over the stage, then does a very impressive chin-up to get his lips where they need to be. It’s a charming touch, and R+J is full of them.

Dressed in the Enver Chakartash-designed costumes that meld hints of the vaguely contemporary (Romeo, at one point, dons a pony-patterned ’50s rocker sport coat) with garb that barely needs squinting to jibe with more a traditional staging, the Montagues and Capulets of R+J feel natural in their habitat. And unlike so many of today’s immersive theatrical experience, R+J‘s town square/dance hall setting never feels overwhelming, off-putting or intrusive. No Here Lies Love, in other words.

In fact, the set design – by the excellent collective dots – feels absolutely welcoming in its simplicity. When a large panel of the floor lifts to reveal a “garden” of flowers, the reveal is as lovely as it is efficient. Isabella Byrd’s lighting design, Cody Spencer’s sound design and the hair & wig design of Robert Pickens and Katie Gell are all top notch.

And lest you think this R+J is all flowers and sweetness, think again. The violence, cruelty and intolerance of Shakespeare’s tale remains as brutal as ever, perhaps more so given the fresh-scrubbed appearances and short-wired temperaments on display. At no time is that more apparent than when Zegler, wispy and slight, meets Juliet’s end that’s presented almost as bloody as Norma’s ultimate mad scene over at Sunset Blvd. Love never runs smooth.

Title: Romeo + Juliet

Venue: Broadway’s Circle In The Square

Written By: William Shakespeare

Directed By: Sam Gold

Music By: Jack Antonoff

Movement direction/Choreography By: Sonya Tayeh

Cast: Kit Connor, Rachel Zegler, Gabby Beans, Daniel Bravo Hernández, Jasai Chase-Owens, Tommy Dorfman, Nihar Duvvuri, Sola Fadiran, Taheen Modak, Gían Pérez.

Running time: 2 hr 20 min (including intermission)