REVIEW: & Juliet at Mayflower Theatre

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Ro…” - record scratch - Hang on, who even needs Romeo? ‘& Juliet’ is the latest musical to be up on Mayflower Theatre’s stage this week, and it could very well be Shakespeare’s biggest masterpiece. Well, Max Martin’s biggest masterpiece really. ‘& Juliet’ is a Jukebox musical using the music of Max Martin; legendary music producer with the most number 1 hits of all time. These hits are from artists such as; NSYNC, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, The Weeknd, and many, many more. As a new musical, having only started out in 2019, ‘& Juliet’ was incredibly quick to gain a reputation on the musical scene after winning 3 Olivier awards after its first year on the West-End. And you know what, you can see why.

Jukebox musicals are usually a bit like marmite. People either love them, or they hate them. Personally I love a jukebox musical…           when it’s done properly. So that leaves the question of, ‘Does ‘& Juliet’ do it properly?’. I think yes and no. The story is actually really, really clever. The way it is written and the way the songs are formatted into the story is great. The set and design definitely screams big Broadway musical. But has it stepped over the line of cheesy, more towards pantomime? It was always going to be cheesy, that’s kind of the point of it - but does that potentially take anything away from the overall musical? I think that ultimately comes down to personal preference. One thing I will note is that in the making of ‘& Juliet’, Max Martin and all of the other creatives involved, wanted to make a point of watching live concerts in, “wanting to combine the emotional power of theatre, with the energy and excitement of a superstar tour”. This is definitely something you can feel through every single number. It feels like you’re at a concert, within the theatre, and that’s a really cool feeling.

Obviously this musical is based on William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’. But what happens when you make that a coming of age story and ask the question of ‘What if?’. What if there is a life for Juliet after Romeo dies? With Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway being major characters rewriting the play in front of our eyes, we follow Juliet who is ditching her famous ending so she can find her own ending - in her way. Having missed out on seeing ‘& Juliet’ when it was London, I was coming into this with very little idea of what was to come (minus the music). I can happily say that I was overall very impressed, also because it wasn’t what I was initially expecting which made  it feel new and refreshing.

The cast for this show was very strong. From the moment we first see them on stage before the show had even started, to the very last moment in the curtain call - their energy was at 100%. Leading the cast as ‘Juliet’ was Gerardine Sacdalan. Her vocals were exactly that of a pop-star who was on her very own arena tour. The star who stole the show in my eyes was the fabulous Lara Denning playing the role of ‘Anne Hathaway’. The acting, the emotion, the vocals - everything about her performance was incredible. One moment you’d be laughing at her, the next you’d be fully connected with whatever she was saying. Starring alongside her as ‘William Shakespeare’ was the brilliant Matt Cardle. Now we know that Matt can sing, but what about his acting? I loved what he brought to the role and I think it really worked with the type of character that this particular Shakespeare was. Jordan Broach was also fantastic as ‘May’. Their performance in celebrating our differences was inspired, and vocally was fantastic. I remember turning around and thinking, their voice was made for the role of ‘Jamie New’. As for the ensemble or ‘Players’, the dancing was brilliant. You could really tell that choreographer, Jennifer Weber, fused the musical theatre and hip-hop dance styles together - again like being at both the theatre and an arena concert.

The set and design was also really impressive. I mentioned earlier that you could tell just from the scale of the set that it was a major West-End/Broadway musical. You can definitely tell from the set that they have also thought about, how can mix musical theatre with the scale of a big concert. A big part of that is the lights. The physical set pieces are super impressive with the stairs, the moon, the chandelier just to name a few. But then make that coming of age and add in a load of lights that aren’t just lighting the set but actually become a part of the set - amazing. There’s no doubt that there’s definitely a difference between the acting scenes and the music numbers as the whole stage just gets a complete makeover. I also really liked how they would switch the lights to some standard stage lighting/spots when it was ‘Shakespeare’ talking with ‘Anne’ about how they were writing the show. It was a very effective way of not only breaking the show up a little bit, but also helping in subtly controlling the pace. Of course we need a little shoutout to the ‘& Juliet’ sign as well. So iconic!

Ive already spoken a little bit about the music, which of course is incredibly iconic. Some of the songs translate to that musical theatre style really well, others not so much. Having said this, I don’t think that the musical theatre style was necessarily what they were looking for having mentioned how much they were wanting this to feel like a concert at the same time. I’d just like to mention the actual quality of the music however. I always say that a live band can completely make a show. And that theory is true again here. It elevated the music so much. The bass I could feel through the floor was like I was stood at a gig. Marcus Carter-Adams has done a brilliant job with his band and when the songs you’re playing are as popular as these ones, they need to be played at the same level - and that’s exactly what they were. I thought the music effects were also really impressive. When the show opens ‘Juliet’ is wearing headphones and the music is muffled like we’re wearing the headphones until she takes them off and it’s at full clear volume. The same happens in the bathroom of the club. The music goes from clear, to muffled, back to clear and I just thought this was really clever. Great attention to detail.

Overall, this is a really fun show. The story is really well put together, and the way the songs come thick and fast is exciting. The theming between classical musical theatre and modern concert is brilliant. I haven’t even mentioned the costumes but these too were excellent. The mix of that classic Shakespeare look, with modern clothes surprisingly really worked. The themes and messages throughout the story are important and definitely part of how popular and well this musical has done in such a short amount of time. There are certain things that made me ‘want it that way’, but then there were also bits that were ‘f****n’ perfect’. The songs are something from our ‘teenage dreams’, but I am ‘confident’ that if you’re a fan of a fun night out, you’ll be asking to see this musical ‘…baby one more time’. That’s enough of the puns, my apologies. ‘& Juliet’ is at Mayflower Theatre until Saturday before it continues on its UK tour. After all, you ‘Can’t stop the feeling’ of musical theatre ;).