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I’ll be honest, my daughter started telling us she wanted to see & Juliet quite a while ago. I’d never heard of it, and despite her trying to explain it to me, I did not quite understand the premise. 

It then happened that & Juliet came to Chicago for a very limited duration (I believe only five days). We jumped at the opportunity and managed to get tickets for December 14th. 

To be clear, before becoming an instructional designer I taught high school English for 20 years, and most of those years included Freshman English, which means I taught The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet many, many times over the span of two decades. Through sheer repetition, I know this play inside and out. 

I’ll get right to the point – I loved & Juliet. LOVED IT! It stayed true to the essence of William Shakespeare as well as Romeo and Juliet while changing nothing less than everything!

& Juliet is what’s called a jukebox musical. This means that it takes existing songs, puts a twist on them, and makes them fit the overall narrative. 

The musical begins with Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway (which is historically accurate), entering the stage and lamenting Juliet’s death. William joins her and tells her that he knows best, yet, despite his objections, she begins to rewrite the play with Juliet surviving. She then writes herself into the play and goes on a journey of self-realization and agency with Juliet and her best friend, May. (Look at that! Juliet finally has a friend! That only took over 400 years.)

Shakespeare humors her for most of the first act and then has finally had enough. He decides show his wife who’s in charge and brings back … Romeo. But Juliet has thoughts on Romeo, and she’s not so quick to fall for him this time. 

I adore this musical because it absolutely honors the source material while calling out every single ridiculous thing about it. I can’t tell you how many times my students thought Romeo was “lame” and a “cry baby,” how many said that they felt Juliet was the smart one between the two, and how they related to the impossible situation Juliet found herself in. For twenty years I had to watch this poor girl commit suicide, year after year after year. 

Well, guess what, folks? & Juliet finally gives Juliet the ending she deserves. I did not realize how much her constant death bothered me until I saw her finally get a happy ending and found my eyes tearing up. 

Yeah. Spoiler. My bad.  

You’ll love this musical for the incredible music, the story, the deep cut jokes, and the message. Some may find it too progressive and liberal, but the play has commentary on that. After all, the Elizabethan Era did not allow women to act, so the part of Juliet? Yeah, originally played by a young boy, as were all female roles during that time period. 

By the way, if you like Brittney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry, *NSYNC, Kelly Clarkson, and others cut from that cloth, you’re going to have a great time.