The last time I thought about Romeo and Juliet, I was a freshman in high school, playing the role of Juliet’s Nurse in my English class… and I hated it. I found the language confusing, none of my classmates were interested, and we didn’t even make it past the second act because the pandemic hit. So much for a tragedy! However, when it was announced that Romeo + Juliet would be returning to Broadway this fall with Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler cast as the famous star-crossed lovers, I bought my tickets during the presale for one of the very first previews. And what an experience it was.
I may have gone for this show’s casting, but I absolutely stayed for its staging. The play is performed at Circle in the Square Theater, and the stage is – you guessed it – a circle with seating on all sides. The cast used every inch of the entire theater to its fullest potential, including the aisles, rafters, seats surrounding the stage’s perimeter, the standing room sections, and the ledges and ladders above the entrances and exits to backstage. As an audience member, you truly feel immersed in the story. While the language was true to Shakespeare’s original work, it was the only element that remained from 1597. Everything else was modern, from the costumes, to the music, the props, and more. Director Sam Gold described the show to Zegler and Connor as, “…a group of twenty-something-year-olds who broke into Circle in the Square on Broadway and have to get something off their chest.” Many roles were shared by an actor, and others were played by the opposite gender of the original character. Gold’s directional choices in this contemporary version of Romeo and Juliet, like having the actors vape and drink from a “blackout rage gallon” (“BORG”), made this show so unique and unlike any of my expectations or preconceived notions surrounding a Shakespearean play. I found the most creative modern choice to be Gold’s approach to the balcony scene.
I shed many tears during the balcony scene. It was that beautiful, and I’m that dramatic. I was entranced watching Juliet’s monologue from a bed that hung from the ceiling, while Romeo ran up and down the aisles trying to figure out if he should call out to her. He engaged with a few audience members before he stopped to contemplate, including sitting on the steps and conversing with the person beside him. The stage’s appearance is minimal, leaving the scenery up to the audience’s imagination. He sits and quietly watches while she claims, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” When he can’t reach her, he takes a chair out from under an audience member to stand on and extends his hands out to her. Seeing him ask someone in the front row to not only give up their seat, but to sit on the floor for a bit, was hysterical. When Juliet calls out to him once more and he runs back onstage in a full sprint, jumps to grab onto the edge of the “balcony,” and does a pull-up to reach her for a goodnight kiss, it is arguably the best part of the show. It was at this moment that my everlasting love for theater washed over me. There is truly nothing I love more than that feeling of being a kid again, and being transported into another world when you step inside a theater. If there’s one thing about me, it’s that I’m gonna cry witnessing live theater. It truly felt magical.
There is something so special about Shakespeare’s ability to write a story about young love and rebellion and have it translate to modern times effortlessly. This piece is so timeless that more than 500 years later, people are still able to not only relate to it, but to find it relevant to our current world. The “star-crossed lovers” trope has transcended far beyond the original text, and is seen in so many books, shows, and movies, like Maria and Tony from West Side Story, or Anakin and Padme from Star Wars. While this play perfectly encapsulates just how dramatic it feels to be in love at 14, I can’t say that we, as a society, still act that way. “No one is willing to die for each other anymore,” says Katie Chacharone, my hometown best friend. “Now it’s, ‘Are you willing to un-add people on Snapchat for me?’” She’s right. Romeo takes his own life over the fact that he can’t be with Juliet. But no; now, men just like your Instagram story and DM you, “wyd,” at 1 a.m. Our modernized, chronically online society criticizes men for being “whipped” or a “simp.” Why? Why must chivalry be dead? It’s pathetic. It makes me sick.
A highlight of the night, and many nights after I attend a Broadway show, was the stage door. Despite my efforts to get out of my seat as quickly as possible, so many people were waiting when I arrived. I think many of them didn’t stay inside the theater to watch the bows, which I found quite rude. Luckily, I was able to secure a spot on the barricade on the sidewalk towards the very end. While many of the cast did not sign Playbills in the section I stood in, I was fortunate enough to have five seconds of Connor’s time to complement his performance and have him sign my Playbill. I will remember it forever, despite how quick and insignificant of an interaction it may seem. I also received an autograph from Tommy Dorfman, who gave a stand-out performance as Juliet’s Nurse and Tybalt.
I had a ball seeing this version of Romeo + Juliet and I can’t wait to return to Verona with my roommate and fellow Her Campus at Pace member Tara Siegel. As Shakespeare said, “For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”