Exuberance, thy name is & Juliet. Due to weather cancellations, the show only plays through January 26, so hie thee over to the Hobby Center for the time of your life.
In this meta jukebox show within a show, Shakespeare, with feisty assist from wife Anne, rewrites the ending to Romeo and Juliet, so Juliet does not kill herself. This empowerment runs through the musical like a long-distance runner. Everyone is affected by it, everybody finds “agency” (the word of the decade), finds their unique voice, takes charge. You get the idea.
But the transformation is in Luke Sheppard’s hyper staging, performances, witty knock-off costumes, and the sheer fun the cast is having. The ensemble is young, diverse in shape and size as well as gender identity, and hip hops its way through Jennifer Weber’s gymnastic, street-wise choreography as if prancing. The energy is there for all to see.
There are star turns for everyone. Rachel Simone Webb has a knockout voice of unparalleled quality and force, a velvet sheen to her Juliet; Teal Wicks as disgruntled Anne wails like a pop star; Corey Mach as entitled Will struts the stage in mock conceit; Nick Drake as conflicted May flits about until he finds fulfillment in the nerdy arms of Mateus Leite Cardoso’s virginal (and virginal-playing) Francoise. Kathryn Allison’s Nurse and Paul-Jordan Jansen’s French-accented Lance get the laughs as former lovers twice-met; and Michael Canu as a resurrected Romeo, descending from on high on his own neon-lit signboard, has presence in spades. And, of course, the ensemble swaggers all over, twerking and gyrating like a kickline of party crashers.
It’s marvelous fun all around, filled with confetti cannons, pyrotechnics, silly puns and wordplay, all shoehorned into the songbook of Max Martin, the Danish pop star composer for every pop star imaginable: Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Pink, the Backstreet Boys, Justin Timberlake, et al. It works surprisingly well. And when the situation doesn’t quite sync with the tone of the song, it doesn’t really matter that much because what’s going on around it is so infectious.
It’s quite the show. And as if you don’t believe it’s a jukebox musical, what’s there downstage center right but a big ol’ ‘50s-style diner jukebox.
The musical (West End premiere 2019), still selling out on Broadway, has just made back its investment. You can see why. Where’s there a Will…you know?
& Juliet continues through January 26 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday; and 1:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 713-315-7625 or visit thehobbycenter.org or broadwayatthebobbycenter.com. $40-$100.
