Smash-hit West End musical & Juliet has extended its run at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London and set a conditional return date for May 2021.
The ‘gloriously silly’ and ‘fun loving’ production had been due to reopen on 5 April 2021, however the recent surge in coronavirus cases in London and the national lockdown has forced the show to postpone the the reopening.
The show announced via social media it would return to performances on 28 May 2021 provided that social distancing is relaxed. Many West End shows, especially the large scale musicals like & Juliet, Mary Poppins, The Book of Mormon, Wicked & Disney’s The Lion King, have stated they will only reopen once social distancing is relaxed as it is financially unviable to operate at reduced capacity.
The West End musical features an original story by Schitt’s Creek scribe David West Read using characters from Shakespeare’s classic Romeo & Juliet to create an alternate story for Juliet.
The premise is that whilst Shakespeare is penning his classic tale, his wife Anne Hathaway makes a few suggestions which involves Juliet taking a very different path.
What evolves is a story about a fiercely independent woman who heads to Paris on on a whirlwind trip of self discovery, romance, friendship and fun.
& Juliet has music & lyrics by 5-time Grammy award winner Max Martin, orchestrations by Tony & Grammy Award winner Bill Sherman and is directed by Luke Sheppard (In The Heights).
Songs from the show include some of the greatest hits from the last 30 years including “… Baby One More Time”, “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”, “Love Me Like You Do”, “Confident”, “It’s My Life” and “Roar”. With a legion of fans the musical partnered with online karaoke service Lucky Voice last year to create a dedicated karaoke playlist for fans wanting to sing-along at home.
Prior to its enforced closure, the cast of & Juliet included Miriam-Teak Lee as Juliet, Cassidy Janson as Anne Hathaway, Oliver Tompsett as William Shakespeare, David Bedella as Lance, Arun Blair-Mangat as May, Jordan Luke Gage as Romeo, Melanie La Barrie as Nurse and Tim Mahendran as Francois.
The ensemble includes Jocasta Almgill, Josh Baker, Ivan De Freitas, Rhian Duncan, Danielle Fiamanya, Kieran Lai, Nathan Lorainey-Dineen, Jaye Marshall, Grace Mouat, Antoine Murray-Straughan, Billy Nevers, Kerri Norville, Christopher Parkinson, Dillon Scott-Lewis, Kirstie Skivington, Alex Tranter and Sophie Usher.
& Juliet is booking from 28 May 2021 until 12 February 2022 at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London.
