Rachel Zegler & Kit Connor-led ROMEO + JULIET Previews — Page 4

dshnookie said: "Matt Rogers said: "dshnookie said: "worth it"

Glad you think so, sweetie. I hope they suspend your troll account."

Cue up “I’m Still Here”, sweetie

-The Broadway Legend TROLL"

The fact that you think it is a badge of honor to be an internet troll tells us everything we need to know about you.

Matt Rogers said: "If it was truly the “abomination” that you describe, there was absolutely zero reason for you to have to suffer through to the bitter end, except for bragging rights on an internet website. My time is more valuable than that, but you do you."

I'm sorry, can I help you, sir?

DCDrama2's review is the funniest thing I have read on this board in a long time! Well done.

Wish I could see this train wreck, but I am over 40 and actually like Shakespeare, so I am probably not the target demographic.

Hopefully, I'll like it more than already reported. I'm largely seeing it for Kit Connor, as I think he has potential to be an excellent actor, one around for quite some time.

Does he, though? I don't mean to be cynical, but he seems like this year's model, namely from "Heartbreaker." I haven't seen anything to support a groundbreaking future career, but maybe I'm missing something. Would happy to be proven wrong.

Aside, I'm seeing a lot of video on socials of the production mid-performance. I'm surprised the house isn't making more of an effort to shut this down.

That's why I worded it as my thoughts, not something irrefutable. Only time will tell.

Play Esq. said: "Hopefully, I'll like it more than already reported. I'm largely seeing it for Kit Connor, as I think he has potential to be an excellent actor, one around for quite some time.

Does he, though? I don't mean to be cynical, but he seems like this year's model, namely from "Heartbreaker."I haven't seen anythingto support a groundbreaking future career, but maybe I'm missing something. Wouldhappy to be proven wrong.

Aside, I'm seeing a lot of video on socialsof the production mid-performance. I'msurprised the house isn't making more of an effort to shut this down."

I watched Heartstopper after he was cast in this and just from his work on there it is very, very apparent that the guy is naturally gifted. He was keeping up with Olivia Colman at 16 or 17. Alex Garland hired him for his Civil War follow-up because he watched the show and has spoken highly of him. He's, as far as I know, the youngest in the company of Romeo + Juliet and the posters on here, including the ones that hated the absolute bollocks out of the show, have all said he's the MVP. I don't get the feeling that this place attracts many Heartstopper fans or swooning teenagers, so I imagine those opinions are solely based on merit.

Play Esq. said: "You’re verifying my point: he’s known for one show, but an industry has been deployed around a 20-something, attractive person, in short order. This is the definitionof “this year’s model.” He may defy the trend, we’ll see."

Nothing you're saying is really wrong, but I think Kad's description of your tone as "unnecessarily cynical" is quite apt.

I'll try to keep this to a manageable length because, well, there's a lot going on. The main takeaway though is that it was better than I expected considering the reports here and that the intro into the play made me go "oh no". Kit Connor is definitely a revelation but the show overall is EXTREMELY uneven, and for every scene that was beautifully staged, there was an equally flabbergasting choice that took me out of the play. It seems as if Sam Gold is afraid to trust the material or himself or his actors because there are just so many things that were obviously deliberate decisions but left me baffled.

Starting with the good, I do think (actual quality aside) that this is a show that will be very interesting to younger people or people who think Shakespeare is old and stodgy. The "vibes" are pretty high energy and it *feels* interesting if you aren't paying too much attention to what's actually being done or the inconsistencies. I certainly had a friend who thought it was one of the coolest things she'd ever seen, so I suppose it knows its audience.

Like I said, Kit Connor was by far the best part of the production. He really seems to know the impact of each of his lines and how to deliver them so they seem deeply felt. I had absolutely no trouble believing everything he said and the character journey Romeo goes through in the entire play, where others (including Rachel Zegler) could sometimes feel like they were just reciting the lines and came off a bit stilted. One notable exception was Sola Fadiran as both Capulet parents who really seemed to give authentic line readings as both characters (it could be a bit hard to tell which character he was portraying at a given moment but most of the time it didn't actually matter).

There really is some gorgeous staging in this, like the balcony scene that's already been mentioned. I thought the party scene at the Capulets was also quite effective in how Romeo first sees Juliet, and even the way that the Capulets' tomb is portrayed. There are a bunch of fun surprises in the set that elicited quite a few gasps and I think they did a generally good job making use of the space.

That said, there are also a lot of moments that were just bewildering. Some of the use of space and location isn't clearly defined, like when Romeo first goes to Friar Lawrence, the rest of the cast is lying on the ground around him. It seems like his friends are there in the scene when he's telling the Friar about Juliet, but it seems like they're not meant to be. Why have them there then? And the first time Friar Lawrence shows up, Gabby Beans (who also plays Mercutio) announces "I'm the Friar now", which just seems lazy without it serving a purpose (I guess it calls back to the way they opened the show but that's a convention they drop pretty quickly so again, why bother?)

All the fight scenes felt weirdly abrupt and the gravitas around them didn't necessarily feel deserved. And near the end it felt like they were racing against a clock as it basically seems like Rachel Zegler was told to rush to her lines when she wakes up in the tomb--there's no sense of realization around what had happened, no sign of deliberation whatsoever (and don't get me started on the comically full water jug that Romeo drinks the poison out of). Pacing overall seemed to be an issue, indulgent in some scenes and strangely quick in others. Which only added to how much I appreciated Kit Connor's Romeo since his characterization really anchored the whole show.

The songs were...fine. The first one occurred at the party so it didn't seem out of place, but the placement and content of the second one just felt unnecessary and as a blatant excuse for Rachel Zegler to show off her voice (I actually kind of liked the song as a standalone but it definitely didn't fit her character in that moment). Though one thing I'll say is that I thought the sound design was fantastic, as I could pretty much hear every word loud and clear, and the levels all seemed well adjusted (though some of the club music could feel a little blaring, but I'm assuming that's intentional). I also sat near the open caption screen, which could be helpful for catching anything I might've missed or even just telling which character was speaking for the roles that were double cast--would quite recommend being in that area if you like captions.

The thing is, I know people who I think would really enjoy this just because of the new aesthetic "edgy" treatment it gets, but I ultimately don't think it comes together. It felt like Sam Gold had 4 different ideas for concepts he wanted to layer over the play but couldn't decide on which one to actually commit to so we're stuck with a wildly inconsistent tone. I guess in some ways that makes it more "interesting"? All the stuff about "The Youth are F**ked"? I didn't see anything added to this show to bring out that theme more than any other Romeo and Juliet production would. If anything I suppose I could say I was never bored because there was always something to be confused about. I don't mind directors taking big swings at things even if they miss (I loved the Ivo van Hove WSS despite how flawed it was), but this really felt like it was swinging at nothing.

Updated On: 10/2/24 at 06:10 AM

ChairinMain said: "AKarp2013 said: "chrishuyen said: "Is the last bit of trying to get the audience to sing along reminiscent of the final chorus in the recent revival of Oklahoma?"

Not even close. I'll give you the exact dialogue exchange they had that led intoto the sing-a-long because it's resting in the front of my mind. Again it's between the actor playing Paris and the Music Director, named Sarah, shortly after Paris is told that Juliet is dead:

PARIS: Sarah, might thee play us some music?

SARAH: 'Tis not an appropriate time to play music.

PARIS: If you don't f**king play some music, Imma fight you. (begins singing)Tonight... we are young!

And I breathed a heavy sigh..."

To be (minimally) fair to Sam Gold, this is not pulled out of thin air, but is a rewrite of a usually cut comic relief scene where the Capulet servant Peter (the play's clown role) begs musicians to play after Juliet's death has been discovered. It's...not one of shakespeare's finest moments.

"

ChairinMain, thank you for that insight. I had no idea about that final scene that no one does. I went and looked it up and read it. It is actually quite beautiful and frankly nihilistic. But also maybe not, we’ve seen a tragedy but life goes on and musicians still need to get paid.

Updated On: 10/2/24 at 10:16 AM

ukpuppetboy said: "It sounds like they went ahead and staged the version from The Object of my Affection."

haha thanks for the laugh, I've never seen this but it's not inaccurate...

Jack Antonoff went on Jimmy Fallon to talk a bit about the show, and he says that the concept was "a bunch of teenagers play all the parts in a McMansion basement in New Jersey", which...certainly comes through in a lot of aspects. It comes up about halfway through the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAM6PkEyLsE

dramamama611 said: "LOL, Zegler said on the Tonight Show (I think) that it was pitched to her as kids break into Circle in the Square and this unfolds."

Wait, so my satirical high school review was actually close to the truth? I’m at a loss for words now.