I only just recently heard about this new Romeo and Juliet musical, which already seems weird for a couple of reasons. First, it’s being marketed around Rebel Wilson, who plays Lady Capulet. Fine, I guess, if she’s your biggest name. But Lady Capulet’s not exactly a major character in the original. I guess they’re going to change that. Second is that the tagline is, “Based on the real story that inspired Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet” I’m sure that sounds good to the marketing people, but really … does a modern audience have any idea what it means? Are the characters going to be named Montechi and Cappelletti? Of course not.
But enough about that – the trailer is here! Let’s watch and discuss.
For reference, here’s the IMDB page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26597666/
Ok, First Thoughts
It’s obviously not doing original text, so right off the bat we have to go down the “modern adaptation” branch. I’m ok with that, as long as we get it out of the way. Other films have tried some weird “It’ll mostly be original text but we’ll just drop it and write our own when we want.” Don’t do that. Pick one.
It’s also a musical. Again, fine, I can work with that as long as it doesn’t have Baz Luhrman’s name attached. I appreciate the man’s work, but he already did Romeo + Juliet, and once you’ve seen a Luhrman musical you’ve kind of seen them all.
How’s The Shakespeare?
They seem to hit many of the plot points correctly — there’s a Paris character she doesn’t want to marry, some clear examples that the ancient grudge is still in full force, a speech by Lady Capulet about doing what the family needs her to do. There’s a masquerade ball, like productions like to do so much despite the fact that IT’S NOT A MASQUERADE BALL. Only Romeo and his friends wore masks. People seem to forget that.
I do see a Rosaline in the cast list, so they’re definitely going to take some liberties. Even though we see her name on the party guest list, it’s not like she has an appearance in the original. But she’s definitely got a reasonable speaking part to get a front page credit on IMDB. Similarly there are a whole host of new characters introduced — Vesante, Tommasso, Allegra. So there’s room for variety and new subplots.
Look At This Cast
As mentioned, Rebel Wilson is getting all the press as Lady Capulet so we know we’ll see a lot of her. But the rest of the cast has got some Shakespeare credit to their names:
Jason Isaacs – Hot off White Lotus Season 3 but better known as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, Isaacs has certainly shown that he can hold his own in dark, intense roles. He’ll be our Lord Montague, and though in the original he doesn’t have much to work with (sometimes cut entirely), he’ll no doubt be counterpart to Lord Capulet this time.
Rupert Everett – Speaking of Lord Capulet, Everett has some more Shakespeare credit to his name. First in an uncredited role as Christopher Marlowe in Shakespeare in Love, Everett took on Oberon in Kevin Kline’s 1999 production of Midsummer. He also played the king in Stage Beauty, which is not a Shakespeare role specifically, but that’s very much a Shakespeare movie and highly recommended 🙂
Derek Jacobi – What can I say? Sir Derek has a dozen Shakespearean credits listed on IMDB alone, three of which are Romeo and Juleit. This time he’ll be playing the Friar. Say what you want about Jacobi’s feelings on the Oxfordian issue, the man’s got the Shakespeare cred and brings it to any production he’s in. I’m glad to see him here.
Definitely Going to See It
My expectations are set. I’m expecting more “Lion King” than “Hamlet”, but that’s ok, Lion King is still a classic movie all on its own. Let’s hope this one gets a whole new audience to appreciate the story of Romeo and Juliet, and maybe then we bring them back around to the original text.