Theatre Royal, Nottingham – until 19th April 2025
Reviewed by Chris Jarvis
5****
Until I began researching ‘& Juliet’, I hadn’t heard of a ‘Jukebox Musical’, though now realise I’ve seen many of the great ones including – Mamma Mia, The Jersey Boys, Beautiful and Tina.
‘& Juliet’ must take its place amongst one of the best with the score primarily made up of pre-existing, well-known popular songs that are used to tell the story. Iconic songs from the prolific Swedish songwriter Max Martin are used to reimagine Juliet’s life had she chosen not to kill herself at the end of Shakespeare’s well-known tragedy – Romeo & Juliet.
By focusing on her journey of discovery, the musical follows Juliet (Gerardine Sacdalan) as she develops a close friendship with her nurse from childhood, Angelique (Sandra Marvin) and together with her ‘bestie’ May (Jordan Broatch) they travel to Paris in search of a new life. Here evolves an endearing and uplifting tale of female emancipation, gender issues and romance – though maybe not what might be expected!
William Shakespeare (Jay McGuiness) and his wife Anne Hathaway (Lara Denning) appear early on as narrators, and we soon realise they disagree on the original tragic ending of Romeo & Juliet. Anne convinces her husband to let her rewrite the ending to his play. Hilarious chaos follows with both Will and Anne casting themselves into the chaos, fighting it out to rewrite Juliet’s new story.
The use of Shakespeare quotes hilariously emphasised by Jay McGuiness, and use of original dialogue from Romeo and Juliet made me want to see it again to make sure I hadn’t missed any of the humour. There were so many puns and one-liners that had the audience continually laughing. An incredibly funny and uplifting musical that managed to retain the heart-warming story of love and friendship.
Snippets from the songs of Max Martin are used brilliantly in the context of the story, to entertain the audience in witty and sometimes ‘tongue in cheek’ ways. With such brilliant acting, it feels like a betrayal to the rest of the cast to single out certain actors, as they were all amazing!
However, three ‘leading’ ladies stood out. Gerardine Sacdalan acted her heart out in the character of Juliet as she developed into the woman who realised she knew her mind and could project it. Lara Denning ‘played a blinder’ and had the audience in her corner from the outset. Sandra Marvin played the part of Juliet’s nurse and advocate in a supportive, loving yet flamboyant way, adding so much natural humour and a much-loved accent!
You’d be forgiven to think that Romeo wouldn’t have a great part to play in a story where he was already dead from the start! However, events emerge where Romeo plays a bigger part than anticipated and tonight was played brilliantly by understudy Liam Norris.
‘& Juliet’ is one of the best night’s entertainment I’ve seen for a long time! If you want to see it you need to get in quick – it’s sold out every night at Nottingham Theatre Royal unless you ‘go it alone’ for the few remaining single seats!