{"id":11125,"date":"2019-12-03T17:23:32","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T17:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/?p=11125"},"modified":"2019-12-03T17:23:34","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T17:23:34","slug":"jukebox-musical-juliet-tailor-made-for-londons-tipsy-millennials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2019\/12\/03\/jukebox-musical-juliet-tailor-made-for-londons-tipsy-millennials\/","title":{"rendered":"Jukebox Musical \u201c& Juliet\u201d Tailor Made for London\u2019s Tipsy Millennials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
I wanted to say something about how & Juliet<\/em> may be the \u2018jukebox musical to end all jukebox\nmusicals\u2019, but that\u2019s incredibly mistaken considering how instantly beloved it\nis and how it is guaranteed to usher in a whole new wave of cringey shows using\nsongs that make the audience repeatedly shout \u201cI LOVE THIS SONG!\u201d and sing\nalong. & Juliet<\/em> takes the clich\u00e9d\nformulation of \u201cwhat if Romeo &\nJuliet<\/em> ended differentlyyyuhhh\u201d (that\u2019s my best Lola Skumpy voice) and tells\nwhat would have happened if Juliet took her two besties (that she doesn\u2019t seem\nto know anything about) and the HOTTEST turn-of-the-century (that\u2019s this\ncurrent century, dear) chart toppers on a little spree and just belted her face\noff in the closest thing to a huge arena pop concert that a musical has ever\nbeen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n & Juliet<\/em> is\nhundo p a musical for millennials \u2013 and unlike when baby boomers say\nmillennials and actually mean Gen Z (they hate YOOTS), I actually mean\nmillennials because the audience has to be READY to relive the HEYDAY of boy\nbands and Britney Spears. This musical feeds on the slightly tipsy 30-year-old\nremembering what it was like when you\u2019d be at a middle school dance and\nBritney\u2019s \u201cOverprotected\u201d would come on and you\u2019d be like YASSSSS and don\u2019t\neven get me STARTED on \u201cI Want it That Way\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s Gonna Be Me\u201d, two pillars\nof the boy band takeover courtesy of Backstreet Boys and NSYNC that of course\nare PIVOTAL to this show\u2019s story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The surprising part is, it\u2019s a lot more fun that it ought to\nbe. & Juliet<\/em>, with a book by David\nWest Read and music by every pop sensation you\u2019d expect in a show like this\n(but mostly Britney Spears; it could really be called the Britney Spears\nmusical because it\u2019s like half her catalogue), forces the biggest pop hits of the\nlate \u201890s\/early 2000s (for the most part) to tell the story of Juliet if she\nwas like I\u2019m not killing myself just because this boy I\u2019ve known for 4 days did\nit first; I\u2019ma flee to France and dance and party and start fresh\/get\nimmediately engaged to another boy I barely know. Everything about this show is\nsimultaneously fun and beyond cringe-worthy, a mixture that meant my eyes\ndidn\u2019t know what to do between all the rolling and the widening and the smiling.\nThe framing device has Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare\u2019s wife (and yes, of COURSE\nthere are cringey jokes about how that\u2019s her real name and she\u2019s not the only\none HAR HAR, guys this is England everyone knows that\u2019s his wife\u2019s name),\nconfront her husband about the depressing and not exactly empowering ending to\nhis new play. She offers to help rewrite the ending and the couple bicker\u2026by\nsinging \u201cI Want it That Way\u201d to each other. Literally, Will is like \u201cbut I want\nit that way\u201d and Anne is like \u201ctell me why?\u201d and then all the blondes go AIN\u2019T\nNOTHING BUT A HEARTACHE and I felt my stomach eat itself because a groan wasn\u2019t\nenough and yet I was smiling???<\/p>\n\n\n\n So Will and Anne are like okay well let\u2019s see what it looks\nlike with the new material and we see Juliet (Miriam-Teak Lee) pull a Sofia\nfrom The Color Purple<\/em> when she sees\nthe dead Romeo and go \u2018hellllll noooooo\u2019 and get up and keep living her life\ninstead of ending it at 14 (the age issue provides some hilarious material).\nShe flees to Paris to PARTY, bringing along her gender-queer friend May (which\nis great for representation but having them sing \u201cI\u2019m Not a Girl, Not Yet a\nWoman\u201d may have been the most forced part uhh (although Arun Blair-Mangat was\nlike, jfc it sounded like they were playing a recording that\u2019s how flawless)) and\nof course\u2026her friend\u2026Anne\u2026Anne Hathaway, who wants to be in the play?? It\u2019s\nawkward storytelling but they wanted the supremely talented Cassidy Janson to\nsang throughout the show so what are you gonna do (although the suuuuper\ndelaaaaayed final lines of Celine Dion\u2019s \u201cThat\u2019s the Way It Is\u201d (yes that is in\nhere too), done so she can show off even more, are way toooo over the top). Between\nher and Lee it is the belt-your-face-off competition of the year in there.\nImpressive performances abound, for sure (though I worry for Lee\u2019s vocal health\ndoing this show long-term), but when it\u2019s this much belting, it\u2019s like belted\nsong after belted song and it\u2019s supposed to impress you with all their belting\nbut after all this belting you\u2019re just like \u2018yes this is still this show.\u2019 The Act\nII power ballads in any of the many<\/em> 11 o\u2019clock moments don\u2019t have as much dramatic\nheft because it\u2019s just more<\/em> at the\nsame level of volume and intensity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But what am I talking about, they don\u2019t really care about\ndramatic effect and storytelling, this is ABOUT FUN. And everyone else is\nhaving a g-d ball at this show. It doesn\u2019t matter that the side plot about\nJuliet\u2019s nurse and her lover (I was like that actor kind of looks like David\nBedella but there\u2019s no way; guess what, it\u2019s him) falls flat because they are\nsupposed to be the comedic effect but the entire SHOW is comedic effect so that\nkind of thing doesn\u2019t work. It doesn\u2019t matter that the unnecessary marriage\ndrama between Anne and Will is so ill-fitting for a show like this \u2013 you can\u2019t\nall of a sudden have a woman cry over her crumbling marriage when the show is a\nROMP of BOY BAND HITS. It doesn\u2019t matter that everyone is miked to within an\ninch of their lives and it\u2019s virtually a pop concert with a forced story that\nmakes you groan louder than you thought humanly possible, because it\u2019s fun. Everyone\nis enjoying themselves; this is one of those shows that\u2019s beyond critique. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My favorite part was when they represented Paris by parading\nlittle landmarks across the stage, like the Eiffel Tower and then\u2026and then the\nMoulin Rouge windmill, reminding me with a shudder that we haven\u2019t seen the\nlast of these forced pop-score storytelling shows this YEAR. I can\u2019t wait to\nsee if that behemoth of a show can top this one, either in terms of\nenjoyability or how many times I groan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n INFORMATION <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n & Juliet<\/em> is\nplaying at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London,\nprobably forever. Despite being an ENORMOUS theatre, there aren\u2019t any bad\nseats. I was in the back of the circle (supes cheap) and it was a great view. There\u2019s\na good ladies bathroom in the circle (like literally\u2026inside the theatre) but the\nrest of the bathrooms are old and gross and small. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you buy directly from the theatre, they charge an extra\n\u00a31.50 to pick up ticket at the box office, which should be THE DEFAULT option. Such\nbullshirt. You can print at home for free. BULLSHIRT. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I wanted to say something about how & Juliet may be the \u2018jukebox musical to end all jukebox musicals\u2019, but that\u2019s incredibly mistaken considering how instantly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n