Interview: Fabiola Caraballo Quijada of & JULIET at Salle Wilfred-Pelletier, Place Des Arts

Born in Venezuela and raised in Texas, Fabiola Caraballo Quijada is starring as Juliet in the National Tour of the hit Broadway musical, & JULIET. I had the chance to chat with the three-time Jimmy Award Nominee & Winner of the 2025 Jimmy Award for Best Performance by an Actress just prior to & JULIET landing in Montreal, where it will run at Salle Wilfred-Pelletier, Place des Arts, 175 Rue Sainte-Catherine O, Montréal, QC H2X 1Y9 from March 17 – March 22.

Can you tell me about your journey into the arts?

I grew up in Tyler, Texas where I started doing theatre. I immigrated in 2013 from Venezuela, where I was born, and ever since then I have been acting and singing, doing community theatre and theatre in my middle school and high school. I'm not sure if you are familiar with The National High School Musical Awards, otherwise known as The Jimmy Awards, which takes place in New York City. I was nominated for The Jimmy Awards three years in a row. It's a week in New York City. It absolutely changed my life. It made me realize that I wanted to keep pursuing musical theatre and that I had potential for it. I was nominated in 2023, 2024 and 2025. It's a very prestigious award. It's 100 kids competing for one prize. Just last year, I graduated from high school and a month later, I won the Jimmy Award and I was finally able to win it and take a trophy back to my parents. Less than a month later, I got cast as Juliet in & JULIET. I'm 6 months into the tour and I am having the time of my life.

Were you familiar with & JULIET prior to being cast?

Yes! I actually went to see the show when the touring company came to Dallas, Texas in November, 2024. I was not expecting the show to be as good as it is. I came in with the mentality of, 'oh, it's just a jukebox musical. It can't be that good.' I was completely proven wrong and I'm so glad I was because now it is just the best show to lead my life with.

Can you share a little bit about your audition process for & JULIET?

In February, 2025, my agent had me submit a video audition for the Broadway production of & JULIET. I got offered a callback for Juliet, but I couldn't go all the way to New York City from East Texas. After I won The Jimmy Awards, I'm guessing the & JULIET company remembered my audition and they made that connection. Less than a month later, I was back in New York City auditioning for the & JULIET National Tour. Within a week, I got the role and had to prepare for a month of rehearsals, back in New York City!

How would you say your experience with the intensity of doing something like The Jimmy Awards prepared you for leading the National Tour of & JULIET?

That is a great question. The Jimmy Awards definitely prepared me so, so much. The Jimmy Awards are so concentrated, so fast paced. It's just a little more than a week for you to put together an entire show. You have an opening number and a closing number. On top of that, you are practicing your own material, for your audition process, for you to pull forward in the competition. It's very strenuous. It's a lot of taking care of yourself and your voice, your body and your mind. It's also being a good person, having good rehearsal etiquette, being on time, being swift, taking direction. That's really what it was during rehearsal. We were learning something completely new, working on it and having it ready the next day. It definitely prepared me for all the fast-paced, high-level, but still very, very joyous material I had to learn for & JULIET.

Looking ahead, what are your top three dream roles?

Whoa! Love this question! The very top of my list is Sally Bowles from CABARET. It's one of my favourite musicals, if not my favourite musical. I really want to play her some day. Very, very far in the future, I would love to play Mrs. Lovett in SWEENEY TODD. She's so crazy and quirky and cutesy, like I am. I would love to play Nina in IN THE HEIGHTS. Her story is so similar to mine. IN THE HEIGHTS is just so full of the joy that is hispanic culture. It's just so close to home for me. I would love to be able to represent my culture and what I stand for in a character that is so beautiful.

Have you been to Montreal before?

I have not! My mom went to Montreal 20 years ago and she has not stopped talking about it ever since! She'll be joining me there. She wants to relive it again! She'll show me all the fun things that she did 20 years ago...hopefully they're still there!

IG: @fabiolaacq

& JULIET

When: March 17 – March 22, 2026

Where: Place des Arts, Salle Wilfred-Pelletier, 175 rue Sainte-Catherine, Montreal

Tickets are on sale at the Place des Arts box office

By phone 1.866.842.2112

Get yours online: placedesarts.com  evenko.ca

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

March 17 - 22 at 7:30 p.m. 

March 21 - 22 at 1 p.m.

Featuring songs by the legendary Grammy-winning songwriter/producer Max Martin, a book by the Emmy-winning writer from “Schitt’s Creek,” David West Read, direction by Luke Sheppard and choreography by Emmy-Award winner Jennifer Weber, & Juliet opened on Broadway in November 2022, where it continues playing to sold-out crowds and breaking box office records.  
  
The hilarious new musical & Juliet flips the script on the greatest love story ever told and asks: what would happen if Juliet didn’t end it all over Romeo? Get whisked away on a fabulous journey as she ditches her famous ending for a fresh beginning and a second chance at life and love—her way.  
 
Juliet’s new story bursts to life through a playlist of pop anthems as iconic as her name, including "Since U Been Gone‚" "Roar," "Baby One More Time," "Larger Than Life‚" "That’s The Way It Is," and "Can't Stop the Feeling!"—all from the genius songwriter/producer behind more #1 hits than any other artist this century— Max Martin. Break free of the balcony scene and get into this romantic comedy that proves there’s life after Romeo. The only thing tragic would be missing it.  
 
The full creative team for the North American tour of & Juliet includes David West Read (Book), Max Martin & Friends (Music & Lyrics), Luke Sheppard (Direction), Jennifer Weber (Choreography), Bill Sherman (Musical Supervision, Orchestrations and Arrangements), Soutra Gilmour (Scenic Design), Paloma Young  (Costume Design), Howard Hudson (Lighting Design), Gareth Owen (Sound Design), Andrzej Goulding (Video & Projection Design) and J. Jared Janas (Hair, Wig & Makeup Design) and Dominic Fallacaro  (Additional Orchestrations and Arrangements). The North American tour is music directed by Andre Cerullo. US Casting is by Stephen Kopel, Carrie Gardner, and Jillian Cimini, CSA. & Juliet is Executive Produced on Broadway and tour by Eva Price.
 
& Juliet is produced on Broadway and on tour by Max Martin, Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page, Jenny Petersson, Martin Dodd and Eva Price.   
 
& Juliet has now been performed on four continents since its World Premiere in September 2019. It began at the Manchester Opera House in England, before moving to London’s West End, where it won three Olivier Awards, and 6 WhatsOnStage Awards before playing its final performance at the Shaftesbury Theatre in March 2023. The show had its North American premiere in July 2022 in Toronto, where it broke box office records and played to standing-room-only audiences, before heading to Broadway, where it again broke box office records and plays nightly to sold-out crowds. An Australian production of & Juliet premiered in February 2023 at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre, joined by a UK Tour in July 2024 and a German production in October 2024. The German production marks the show’s first production with a book translated into a different language, and will also be the sixth country to welcome & Juliet in less than five years. More information for all productions can be found at andjulietthemusical.com
 
The Original Broadway Cast Recording of & JULIET was released in October 2022 on Atlantic Records and is available wherever streaming music is played.
 

https://youtu.be/wDnru1gwMXc?si=wKLvRsrBO50ZhAcI

https://youtu.be/3FOEczu4L6A?si=uTGlOBwbemIHQ98v