& Juliet at Mirvish Productions
Photo by Matthew Murphy
In many ways, Mirvish’s Broadway-bound & Juliet resembles a 1930s musical comedy.
Like those flimsily-structured shows that feature pop songs (now deemed jazz standards) connected by the loosest of plots, & Juliet is pure escapism.
But at least & Juliet is aware of the tradition it’s working in. Yes, its plot, which asks the question “What if Juliet (Lorna Courtney) didn’t die?”, is convoluted both in setup and resolution, but & Juliet pushes this convolution so far that it becomes ironic.
The jukebox-style score is made up of pop hits by Max Martin from “I Want it That Way” to “Roar”, and bookwriter David West Read embraces the randomness of the jukebox format — the songs aren’t slipped in seamlessly, but come out of nowhere, and carry with them massive, unexpected plot shifts. Often, the songs become totally detached from their original meaning; context can make serious songs comedically lighthearted and lighthearted songs surprisingly serious.
This campy approach combines with bombastic technical and musical execution to create the exact cocktail of overstimulating escapism that the show is going for. It’s helpful, too, that the show is Shakespeare-based but more contemporarily costumed: not in any firm time period, it floats in a void of its own, providing a perfect respite from the troubled world outside.
Unfortunately, though, thinly veiled virtue signaling occasionally interrupts the show’s escapism. Only the male characters have been given negative traits, so, when the female characters shut them down, it is, theoretically, empowering. And it is. At first. After two and a half hours, though, the women’s perfection begins to wear thin, and the men, who we are supposed to hate, appear strangely complex. Constructing characters around political generalities is not sustainable over an entire show, no matter how accurate those generalities may be.
Still, Courtney’s pitch-perfect belting brings down the house, and justifies Juliet’s place in the show’s title. & Juliet comes exactly as advertised, and offers Toronto a Broadway-level theatrical experience — neoliberal trappings and all.