Another Romeo & Juliet? This one with Pat Benatar's catalogue?!

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/4/22 at 6:30am

Playbill Article

 

I loved Pat Benatar; hell, I wanted to BE Pat Benatar! But this just seems....so unneeded. 

Won't there already be 2 R&J musicals next season? I realize this article isn't claiming that trajectory, but sheesh.

[amiyagi]

Posted: 6/4/22 at 10:27am

That was my first thought too. Why is it always R&J?? There ARE other Shakespeare plays. A lot of them could be very compelling musically. There's a Macbeth musical called Lady M in development in London that I'm very intrigued by. Someone could maybe take a stab at Othello or Much Ado. 

[ggersten]

Posted: 6/4/22 at 10:37am

amiyagi said: "That was my first thought too. Why is it always R&J?? There ARE other Shakespeare plays. A lot of them could be very compelling musically. There's a Macbeth musical called Lady M in development in London that I'm very intrigued by. Someone could maybe take a stab at Othello or Much Ado."

There are Operas based on Othello and Much Ado

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 6/4/22 at 12:30pm

amiyagi said: "That was my first thought too. Why is it always R&J?? There ARE other Shakespeare plays. A lot of them could be very compelling musically. There's a Macbeth musical called Lady M in development in London that I'm very intrigued by. Someone could maybe take a stab at Othello or Much Ado."

Why does it have to be Shakespeare? There are so many couples in the public domain. Pyramus and Thisbe, Tristan and Isolde, Hero and Leander... We might even (gasp) step out of the Western canon for more source material to plunder.

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/4/22 at 12:53pm

Pat Benatar has a truly fantastic song catalogue, which deserves better than Romeo and Juliet.  

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 6/4/22 at 1:26pm

As is usually the case, this may be something only I remember, but at one point, Pat announced she was writing a novel about the Second Coming. It's never come out, but it's such an offbeat idea that I almost think it'd be more interesting to see a Benatar jukebox musical constructed around that plotline than another R&J.

[JSquared2]

Posted: 6/4/22 at 1:49pm

Yeah, if ONLY someone had once said to Lenny, Steve, Arthur and Hal -- "Guys, R&J have been done to death --- you need to come up with a NEW concept!"

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/4/22 at 5:59pm

The Playbill article is not entirely accurate. Benatar and Neil Giraldo have also written new songs for it. 

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 12/1/22 at 10:09am

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/30/theater/pat-benatar-invincible-musical.html

"Does Broadway Need Another ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Musical? Pat Benatar Says Yes.

After competing ideas and a cease-and-desist order, “Invincible — The Musical” arrives onstage. Just don’t call it a jukebox musical."

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/1/22 at 11:12am

I'm actually kind of excited for this, and would love to see a song list to see what songs they lined up where.  Maybe we'll be feeling R&J fatigue but hopefully they'll recognize that this would need to be different enough to stand out.

Performances have already started at the Wallis so curious to hear more about that if anyone attends.

[Dusoleilcanwhistle]

Posted: 12/3/22 at 8:23pm

Oooooof - I caught the show this afternoon and unfortunately it is a total mess.

I went in rooting for the show to be enjoyable (I do love the music) but this show will be studied for how many ways a musical can go wrong.

The book/concept for the show itself really doesn't work. It's a mix of Shakespearean English with modern day expletives and essentially a speed-through of "Romeo and Juliet" but removing all character development. I felt really bad for the very talented actors (Kay Sibal as Juliet and Brennin Hunt as Paris in a horrendous wig were the vocal highlights) who were giving it their all but were completely let down by the creative team in all aspects. The choreography was choppy, direction very confusing, one fairly unattractive set piece and everyone was wearing bizarre costumes (some modern, some not). 

Ultimately, if you're doing "Romeo and Juliet" in any form, you need the audience to understand why Romeo and Juliet love each other and there was absolutely zero attempt to do that here. The love story didn't have any story! The characters didn't have personalities! 

Finally, the decision to make this a show without an intermission is clearly by design - if there were a break, most people probably wouldn't have returned for Act Two. 

I'm sorry to be so harsh on any piece, but this truly felt like a waste of my time which I haven't felt in a theater in over a decade. Sadly, a big swing and a miss here.

Updated On: 12/3/22 at 08:23 PM

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/4/22 at 1:22am

Did they have a song list in the program?  I'm curious about what song was used where.

[cryan71]

Posted: 12/4/22 at 9:03pm

It wasn't as bad as the above poster makes it out to be.  

It still needs work but that's what out of town tryouts are for.

I loved the new orchestrations of Benatar's songs.  The leads are very strong.  I liked the last 20 minutes, because the show really developed a rhythm.

The show just needs to decide what it is, a version with Shakespearean language. Or a modern or dystopian future interpretation.  It's not that clear.