Romeo meets Juliet. It’s love at first sight. The 17-year-old emo falls for the 13-year-old manic pixie dream girl. They dance, they monologue, there are balconies, masquerade balls and a ton of deaths. Classic. The oldest love story in the book.
But & Juliet, the Broadway show which premiered at New York’s Stephen Sondheim theater in 2022, decides that the classic Shakespearean play might need some adjustments some 400 years later — maybe, Juliet didn’t need to literally drink poison for a guy she met five days ago.
Instead, & Juliet, written by David West Read of Schitt’s Creek fame, has the star-crossed lover go on an adventure after Romeo dies, where she dates other men for a change, finds real friends, discovers who she really is and (you guessed it) learns how to write her own story. She does this all set to the work of Swedish music producer and songwriter Max Martin (famous for “Hit me Baby One More Time,” “Teenage Dream,” “Since U Been Gone,” “Roar” and 90 percent of the pop radio hits from 1995 to now).
The jukebox musical, which touring cast member Paul-Jordan Jansen (Lance), calls “a millennial’s dream,” announced in September that after four years, it will close on Broadway in January 2027. Before performing its last show ever Jan. 3, the show’s national tour will be at the Hult Center Oct. 6 through Oct. 11.
Though the show is closing, Jansen, who has been with the tour since it began in 2024, sees & Juliet as a success story. The current Broadway atmosphere is in a place where a new show that finds a home for six months to a year is considered aspirational. Jukebox musicals (the term for a musical where the songs are already well-known and popular, as opposed to being written directly for the show. Think Mamma Mia!) have an even higher turnover — with only four on Broadway right now (& Juliet being one of them, and the rest are biographical).
But this show, which debuted in London’s West End in 2019, survived post-pandemic and came back to rave reviews through its entire run.
Jansen says that part of it is because of the party of it all. The union between 30 of Martin’s most famous early 2000s pop hits and Read’s book, he says, has allowed for “something really special,” as far as “tying these songs together into a storyline and bringing these characters to life.”
The show has been praised in reviews for keeping the songs in conversation with each other and actually driving the plot, rather than falling into the jukebox musical trope of phoning it all in.
The other reason for its commercial success has been because it uplifts women and their agency.
Jansen says that & Juliet is a story about “carving your own pathway and making your own decisions, being your own person, finding yourself and really loving that person who you are.” In media, he says, “those are perspectives we need continuously,” and that is why & Juliet “has been such a sounding board for folks in younger generations too, and women-identifying folks,” but he says everyone can see themselves in these characters as well.
The show has also been lauded for its nonbinary character, May — and someone in the show ( this is hardly a spoiler) sings to them “It’s Gonna be Me” by Nsync (think about it).
In the touring cast, May is portrayed by nonbinary actor Nico Ochoa.
“May is my favorite character,” Jansen says. “Their ability to just be who they are unapologetically and within the show gives the other characters that freedom as well, even when they feel like they need to be a certain way.”
He adds, “I think that May offers quite a bit of healing for a lot of folks too.”
After the Hult residency, the & Juliet touring cast embarks on just six more weeks of performances.
& Juliet is 7:30 pm Tuesday, Oct. 6 through Thursday, Oct. 8, 8 pm Friday, Oct. 9, 2 pm and 8 pm Saturday, Oct. 10 and 1 pm and 6:30 pm Sunday, Oct. 11 at the Hult Center. Tickets start at $44 and are available at HultCenter.org.