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Review Roundup: Romeo + Juliet

Author DanielDaniel, October 25th, 2024

The Shakespeare Classic Gets The Gen-Z Treatment

A fresh, contemporary retelling of Shakespeare's classic Romeo and Juliet has hit the Circle In The Square Theatre this week. Starring the dynamic duo Kit Connor (Heartstopper) and Rachel Zegler (West Side Story), this Sam Gold-directed production catapults the timeless tale into today's world. While some critics praise its authentic portrayal of current teen culture, others feel its Gen Z elements are clunky and out of touch. Dive into the reviews below to see what the buzz is all about...


The Reviews: The Good, The Bad, and The Meh


THE GOOD

The Hollywood Reporter

"Gold's revival fully commits to its concept and sustains it surprisingly well. Traditionalists might shudder at the way some of the verse is delivered, but if you're willing to take it on its own terms, this R+J is an infectious emotional rollercoaster."

Deadline

"Connor, Zegler and a cast that also includes Gabby Beans, Tommy Dorfman, Daniel Bravo Hernndez and others are engaging from beginning to end."

Theatrely

"It's all a very pleasant surprise that this Romeo + Juliet is more akin to Skins the British series whose impact we must not let be forgotten than expected: wildly enjoyable, acutely contemporary, potently acted, and often surprisingly revealing."

Observer

"Looking back on his Hamlet, Othello, Lear, Macbeth, I'd say Gold has a mixed track record with the major tragedies (watch out, Titus!). This one I'll remember fondly."

New York Stage Review

"The most gorgeous moments in this Romeo + Juliet are the simplest, when all the noise falls away and it's just Connor and Zegler: their first meeting, when they spontaneously proclaim their love in a shared 14-line sonnet; the famous Act 2 balcony scene, a positively swoon-worthy moment that no future production should ever attempt to re-create; their too-brief moment of post-wedded bliss."

Entertainment Weekly

"The stellar production which sees many of its cast, including its two leads, making their Broadway debut succeeds in threading the needle between two nearly impossible tasks that come with putting on Romeo + Juliet: retaining the play's original language and message while simultaneously putting one's own stamp on the material, and, perhaps most importantly, making a more than 420-year-old play both accessible and enticing for the teens it is representing onstage."


The Bad

Chicago Tribune

"Alas, while the two leads are sincere, the show itself is (a) altogether too much of too much; (b) a bit of an ill-focused mess; and (c) less than engrossing."

The New York Post

"Once the audience has become accustomed to the playful, cool mood that extends into the chic lobby, they await the, er, tragedy to unfold. On that end, "Romeo + Juliet" is a let-down. During the dark final moments in the crypt, or wherever the heck they are, the play peters out. The best bits are specks in the rearview; the sadness, less powerful than the booming tunes from two hours earlier."

The Washington Post

"Unfortunately, the production's rave-like, nihilistic drive does little to make up for its lack of clarity or a pulse."

Vulture

"One could be forgiven for walking away from this show's two (and a half) hours' traffic thinking that maybe Romeo and Juliet is kind of mid after all. Such is the enervating effect of so aggressively clickbaity and uncurious a production."

The Guardian

"More often than not, it irks, like an overly enthusiastic theater teacher straining to get equally enthusiastic kids interested in the classics via whatever means necessary, be it overt eroticism, Doc Martens, a couple of mid original pop songs by Antonoff, or the jarring presence of the TikTok binge drinking phenomenon known as a Borg (Blackout Rage Gallon)."


The Mehs

The New York Times

"Is that a reasonable response to aim for when staging the world's most famous weepie? For me, seeing so many young people engaged, it is. Perhaps, as Shakespeare commands in the play's closing speech, they will "Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things." And so what if the production achieves that goal by protecting them from too much unruly feeling, just as the Capulets aimed to protect Juliet? Probably, the Capulets were right."

USA Today

"He occasionally achieves something gorgeous and intimate, thanks in large part to the white-hot chemistry of his two leads. But for slightly older audiences, now nursing heartburn more often than heartbreak, you'll likely just feel exhausted."

Variety

"Although the production has a heartbeat, it's missing a heart... When he kills Tybalt in revenge, the moment is empty of real feeling. In the moments after that when he's exiled and so must leave his love; when he discovers Juliet is dead; etc. there is no heartbreak at all. There's not a wet eye in the house."

Timeout

"This production seems intent on appealing to TikTok audiences who don't know much about the play going in, which is a laudable goal, and I think it will succeed. But those newcomers may be surprised to find that what they thought was a tragedy about young people crushed by societal constraints is actually the sad tale of two nice kids who died from a lack of adult supervision."

Have you seen Romeo + Juliet? Do you agree with the critics? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a review onsite!


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