Romeo and Juliet Previews — Page 2

Saving graces*, not graves. Heh, sorry. Writing from my phone.

---

I was able hear Rashad fine at the orchestra level. I had more trouble hearing Houdyshell and both Montagues. It's clear the company needs time to settle into their Shakespearean rhythms on that stage, but I think that will come. The main issue I had was I left with no concept of who Romeo was. Bloom did not breathe life into the character, whereas Rashad had me convinced she was a teenager in love. Her Juliet is intelligent but rash. She was the best part IMO.

Since this is Bloom's 1st Broadway preview, I am going to him a break. Shakespeare is hard to act.

Then he shouldn't be doing Shakespeare. He should've picked a different play. No one should be given a pass, or a break. If you can't do Shakespeare, don't do it.

Also: they cut Paris' death scene entirely. So we never see Romeo kill him.

---

By the way, I've always thought Bloom was more than a pretty face. He IS talented, but this just might not be his arena. A lot of great actors shouldn't do Shakespeare.

He makes it all SOUND pretty... But it lacks any real context.

---

1) Theater looks beautiful! Very classy and it's just brighter than before. And I know it's small and ridiculous, but at least the male bathroom is the nicest one I've been in in any theater... Just sayin!
2) Costumes range from almost rags for Friar Laurence to suits for the Capulets. Bloom spent a minority of the show in ripped jeans, a white t-shirt, and leather jacket. Set was pretty simplistic. The edges of the stage were covered with sand, there was a big mural with some graffiti that would split into 3 desperate parts to show different scenes, and every so often there would be some poles of fire.
3) Weapons are still knives, the only updated thing I saw was Romeo using a flashlight at one point. Everything else was candles so that definitely threw me off. Juliet used te knife for her suicide as well

I think it's meant to be contemporary but not of any particular time, and thus the hodgepodge. Oddly, perhaps the clearest costume time frame-wise was that of Paris, who was dressed like a country club Conservative.

I was disappointed they didn't use the true ending, but I guess that would have gotten in the way of the masses swooning over Bloom.

But what gives them the who right to completely alter who Romeo is by cutting Paris' death? To me, it's a bizarre cut and completely unjustified.

And I agree - Paris' costume tells us exactly who he is. The others, I'm afraid, don't.

It's a very disappointing production, that I really WANTED to like.

Heading to bed now, but happy to talk more about it tomorrow. Curious to hear what others think as previews continue.

---

"Obviously a bit too old, but I think we all knew that going in!"

Maybe you knew it going in but that doesn't make it any less of a flaw in the casting and the production. These reviews aren't giving me much hope and I didn't have a ton to begin with. The rhythm of the language is both the trickiest and most important part of performing Shakespeare and that's why there are many wonderful actors who spend the bulk of their careers performing primarily Shakespeare and really have mastered the flow of the words. That's one of many reasons why you can't just shove film, television, and musical theatre actors into Romeo & Juliet or anything else really and assume it'll fit just because they're actors. I've been very impressed by some "names" doing Shakespeare but it's very rare.

Anyway, what's this nonsense about a motorcycle? What scene does that happen in and is it explained...why? And for the love of God. If you still want to use daggers as weapons, don't modernize the play. I'm well aware they look WAY cooler onstage and create much more lengthy and dramatically interesting fight scenes. But if this version of the show is happening in 2013 or somewhere in recent modern times, nobody is fighting with daggers except at Renaissance Faires.

I feel like this is going to all come off very judgmental and catty but I love Shakespeare and I love Shakespeare done well and I really want there to be some new interpretations and productions of his works on Broadway, but this sounds so shallow and not at all well developed artistically.

---

Based on these early reviews, the word "misguided" has popped into my head...

---

This certainly isn't turning out like I thought it would. When they described the production as contemporary, I thought they meant modern and sexy and this isn't it. Hopefully, with previews going into mid-September the production will change.

how was Justin?