Review: & JULIET Is Revisionist, Gleeful Fun at OC's Segerstrom Center

Fresh off its sit-down engagement at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre, the new(-ish) 2022 Broadway jukebox musical & JULIET is finally making its long-awaited pit-stop an hour south of L.A. at OC's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through September 21, 2025.

Unabashedly gleeful and quite a broad crowd-pleaser, this fun, empowering, and infectiously giddy musical is, simply put, such an endearing, delightful surprise.... and a much-needed antidote to the our current chaotic, irreversibly divided world. 

While it certainly upends and, at times, skewers a well-known classic work of literature which many purists might detest a bit, the show actually celebrates and revels in its self-referential reinvention, culminating in a show that ends up being both enjoyably heartwarming and insightfully thoughtful—on top of being, of course, just super fun. 

Featuring thrilling visuals, a uniformly talented, likable cast, a wonderfully silly yet still aspirational premise, and a long list of ear worm bops that weave seamlessly into its organized mayhem, this entertaining tongue-in-cheek stage show is, hands down, my favorite touring direct-from-Broadway production of 2025 so far by a mile. 

Yes, admittedly, its broad humor and, sure, its catalog of hits got to me. I'm not shy to admit that these were significant jams for me back in the day, so the nostalgia factor is overflowing. But no show is truly perfect, yet & JULIET is such smile-inducing joy from start to finish that any flaws it may have can easily be shoved away into the wings as it skillfully distracts us with all its sparkly spectacle.

Rest assured that when you go, it can be a guaranteed, all-around good time—that is, if you surrender yourself to its giddy machinations and come in with an open heart and an open mind to the show's intentional 21st-Century-esque progressive slant.

This being the O.C., of course, there's bound to be a conservative audience member or two who'll likely be offended by the show's mildly edgy material, as observed during the show's recent opening night performance that had an angry-looking gentleman abruptly get up to drag away her young pre-teen daughter in the middle of a musical number that features a non-binary character falling in love and, gasp!, even sharing a kiss! FYI, non-binary characters, ahem, did indeed historically exist in the Bard's plays before. I assume this was particularly offensive to this person only because I didn't see them return for the rest of the show. 

So except, perhaps, for that angry dude who yanked her young daughter out of the theater in the middle of Act 1, there's just so much to love about this show for the rest of us: from its cheeky, clever dialogue and winsome, reinvigorated characters, to its progressive, message-heavy (but not cloyingly preachy) revisionist plot line fashioned around a "what if" scenario—courtesy of book writer David West Read—that's smartly punctuated with lots of comedic banter and a playlist of familiar pop hits that will have audiences nostalgic for the carefree pop-ruled days of the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

If someone would've asked the younger version of me which late 90's/early-to-mid aughts music producer deserves a jukebox musical fashioned around their plethora of hits, my R&B-biased inner young person would have said, maybe… oh, perhaps Babyface, Rodney Jerkins, Timbaland, or even the team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. 

But, appropriately, in that era of (mostly) youth-centric, million-selling, over-produced Boy Bands and Empowered Teen Queens, this jukebox musical keenly employs a collection of songs from that magical hit-making wizard Max Martin, the ubiquitous Swedish pop music svengali notable for being the music producer with the most number one hits of all time—25 number one songs as a producer, and 27 number one songs as a songwriter. 

With a proven track record spanning nearly three decades churning out major hits, Martin is credited with writing, co-writing, or producing many pre-Spotify chart-toppers from, yes, the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears… plus recognizable global hits from Céline Dion, *NSYNC, and, later, Katy Perry, P!nk, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and many more.

Songs like the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way," "Larger Than Life," "As Long As You Love Me," and "Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely," and *NSYNC's "It's Gonna Be Me" all make appearances here, alongside Spears hits like "…Baby One More Time," "Overprotected," "Oops! I Did It Again," and "Stronger," and Perry tunes "Teenage Dream," "I Kissed A Girl," and "Roar."

But unlike other expected jukebox musicals that use its songbook to simply chronicle a real-life musician's career, & JULIET cleverly re-contextualizes these very familiar songs—credited here to "Max Martin and Friends"—to enhance its fresh, reimagined take on a centuries-old plot line (sometimes winkingly so), but now with a feminist, alternative twist: what if Juliet, the female half of William Shakespeare's most famous balcony-smooching pair of star-crossed lovers didn't actually die at the end of Romeo and Juliet?

What if—instead of choosing to die for love (or, rather, for the loss of love)—Juliet decides to keep living and live out her own story, on her own terms, and putting herself first for once?

This becomes the fun, often hilariously-rendered new direction this old school narrative takes that often breaks fourth walls, often makes cheeky current day pop culture references, and often surprises the audience with a familiar pop song re-voiced for new, dramatic purpose.

On the surface, & JULIET—directed with brilliant pacing by Luke Sheppard—does feel like so much is happening and being spilled out for us to absorb at the same time. But, somehow, in its telling of a kind of improvised, on-the-spot stage production—spearheaded by a pair of combative playwrights with divergent opinions—the show is easy to digest and the laughs are steady and well-earned. 

Its foundation, of course, is Romeo and Juliet as a re-invented, re-imagined "sequel" that never would've happened had Juliet remained a corpse. But what makes the such a vibrant, seemingly "fresh" musical is that it also mixes its expected Elizabethan-era settings with plenty of surprising-to-see 21st-Century accoutrements, which becomes just part of its unique charm. 

Here, Juliet—much spunkier and self-possessed than her classic iteration—loves sporting a pair of Beats headphones. Meanwhile, the youngin's (whether from Verona or Paris) love dancing hip-hop moves around a literal jukebox or a DJ-manned set of loudspeakers—both items I'm pretty dang sure (haha) didn't exist back then. 

Why, then, are these modern objects even here? 

Who cares? It's all in fun. They're singing Backstreet Boys songs with concert lighting and intricate hip hop moves, after all.

This Ye Olde Days/Modern Days hybrid mentality is doubly reinforced in the show's modern-leaning, wildly outlandish, yet still period-nodding costumes by Paloma Young (Elizabethan era garb colliding with neon-drenched pop concert aesthetics) and the low-tech/high-tech mashup set designs by Soutra Gilmour, which are then gorgeously complimented by the superb work of lighting designer Howard Hudson and video/projection designer Andrzej Goulding (whose amazing "painted" projections were last seen on this stage in LIFE OF PI). The whole show is such a visual dazzler—which matches its very caffeinated product and its pleasing delivery system. 

And despite being rooted in the Bard's source material, none of the characters speak in Shakespearean meter but, rather, in a more relatable modern American slang (with the occasional over-exaggerated French accent for comedic effect), punctuated, naturally, when characters start singing its pop-centric songbook. Lazy affectation or easy-to-connect entrance point? Hard to tell which is the motivating factor, but I bought it as many do for the length of the show.

The main complex crux of & JULIET, of course, is that it unfolds as a play-within-a-play, being written out in real time by its duo of dueling authors: Romeo and Juliet's original playwright William Shakespeare (played with dashing, self-important swagger by Corey Mach) and his long-suffering, long-ignored wife Anne Hathaway (the wonderful Teal Wicks, looking less greenified from her Elphaba days on So. Cal stages, but sounding as amazing as ever). 

The musical begins with Shakespeare and the visiting Anne debating the ending of the just-premiered Romeo and Juliet, with Anne arguing that Juliet deserves a second chance at life. Anne feels revisions are needed to reflect a feminine perspective (there's, of course, no ambiguity that her proposed rewrites are a direct reflection of her own personal feelings, particularly regarding his often absent, preoccupied husband). 

Anne "suggests" helping to co-write it—to, perhaps, make it less, well, tragic—which, naturally is met with some trepidation from Will, who is unwilling to see his play as nothing less than perfect as is. However, he eventually agrees to the experiment after hearing Anne complain that she and the kids never see him at home anymore. Anne, correctly, thinks Will's main focus seems to be but his work—which, to his credit, are popular, well-liked, and have been financially lucrative—but comes at the expense of spending time with his family.

Will recruits the hip and cool Romeo and Juliet cast to act out the new play in real time, which is a good thing because Anne's edits come swiftly. In her new revised ending, Juliet (the incredible Lois Ellise, putting in a star-worthy performance) wakes up from her deep sleep, sees her lover dead next to her, but, this time, skips her tragic suicide. 

"Romeo can still die… that's fine!" bellows Anne, clearly hinting at her disdain for Juliet's former lover while plotting out a different path for her newly self-actualized heroine.

After learning that Romeo (swoon-worthy rock star Michael Canu) turns out to be a serial cheater—with both men and women—Juliet decides to leave Verona, mostly to escape her parents' plan to banish her to a convent as punishment for her forbidden romance with Romeo. 

She soon embarks on a journey of self-discovery to Paris, accompanied by her nurse Angélique (the wonderful Kathryn Allison), her non-binary BFF May (the fabulous Nick Drake), and, surprise!, her, um, other friend April, a new character Anne wrote in for herself to act out (not to be completely left out, Will is written in as a carriage driver). 

Paris proves to be quite a revelation, where Juliet and her pals crash an exclusive party where she has a meet-cute with Francois (the adorkably sweet Mateus Leite Cardoso), the nerdy son of a local noble, Lance (the funny Paul-Jordan Jansen), who's insistent that Francois be married or he'll be forced to join the army, something a soft lad like Francois might not be suited for as a daily activity. 

Juliet and Francois, as expected, bond over their frustrations about their mutually restrictive lives. But unbeknownst to Juliet, her friend May also had a meet-cute run-in with Francois earlier that evening. May confides in Juliet about her struggles with finding love and acceptance as a non-binary person, but not revealing that they have a current crush on someone.

Thus begin a criss-cross of sitcom-caliber plots that involve a love triangle, an unexpected (but hilarious) resurrection and arrival of a previously perished paramour, and, ultimately, Juliet finding strength in standing on her own convictions and being independent, as decreed by the original Anne Hathaway.

Bursting with buoyant energy, witty humor, and lots of cleverly-used pop anthems to reframe a familiar story, & JULIET is a funny, entertaining, revisionist good time. While jukebox musicals tend to lean heavily on songs as the superficial anchor for a show, here the format is elevated to support a fairly "new" story, so the music used ends up being a bonus perk, if you will, for an engaging set of situations and characters that are entertaining in their own right. But when the nostalgic songs do arrive in their given placement, they are all carefully curated and re-contextualized, offering ironic, sometimes poignant, or even empowering counterpoints to the characters' individual journeys.

Martin's chart-topping hits like "…Baby One More Time," "Since U Been Gone," "It's My Life," and "Stronger" are not simply shoe-horned into the story—they gain fresh meaning through context, giving voice to the motivations of the characters singing them. 

When Ellise's Juliet belts out "Roar," it's not just a revival of Perry's megahit—here it's a strong-willed declaration of agency and pride. When Drake's May sings an exquisite rendition of "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman," it is a heartbreaking gut-punch as the song is transformed into a tearful confessional about the struggles of being non-binary (I had tears, too). Even "As Long As You Love Me" becomes an unexpected moment of levity as a character points out the absurdity of uttering such lyrics, despite its sincerity. But by far the most touching musical moment triggered by a song is when Wicks' Anne and Ellise's Juliet beautifully harmonize on Céline Dion's hit "That's the Way It Is," a song reinvented here as a poignant duet about female resilience and freedom of choice that reverberates centuries of women feeling less than.

While, okay, I did find myself chuckling every time a new song enters in the context of what's happening in the story—it's more a reaction of delight at the cleverness of how the lyrics have been usurped for a new, story-driven purpose, often as a means to heighten drama or emphasize humor. 

I also applaud how at times—in the middle of the same song—characters on opposing sides of a conversation trade lyric lines between one another that's appropriate to their respective emotions, which could vary depending on the context. It helps, of course, that these bops all pretty much slap (so much that a few songs I can't personally stand in its original form sounds amazing here with this show's delivery, arrangement, and context). The joy of recognition is there for the audience, but so is the delight of rediscovery in their new context.

And when the cast sings and dances together—well, it's basically an all-out party. This wonderfully diverse ensemble of ridiculously talented, ridiculously photogenic triple-threats not only sing beautifully, they carry out choreographer Jennifer Weber's dynamic mix of modern, hip-hop, and musical theater styles with mesmerizing ferocity.

Also worth applauding is the show's clear mandate to make space for tender explorations of gender identity, queer romance, and intergenerational conflict, which broadens the narrative beyond just with Juliet herself, underlining the progressive lean of the musical with an appreciated commitment to inclusivity. While the show may elicit plenty of sitcom-caliber laughs throughout, the show gives plenty of elbow room for touching moments that tug at one's heartstrings, too.

Overall, & JULIET is such a genuinely enjoyable show because it never sneers at either of its source material—it celebrates both the famous work of Shakespeare and Martin's catchy pop music as complementary cultural touchstones, while also giving them a bold, fresh remix that can be equally lauded by fans of either. Shakespeare's presence—alongside his wife Anne as a meta-commentator—adds a layer of self-awareness that pokes fun at literary tradition while amplifying modern perspectives, all set to irresistible familiar beats. 

The result is a musical that feels both irreverent and sincere, balancing camp and heart with equal panache as it teaches its audiences that the expected, traditional "happily ever after" or the sad, tragic conclusion doesn't have to be one's end goal. Destinies can be rewritten.

A literal confetti cannon of joy, & JULIET dresses up its message of female empowerment with an appealing score of contemporary pop to hammer home the value of agency, reinvention, acceptance, and second chances. In a Broadway landscape that often doles out jukebox musicals as simply another nostalgia trip, this amusing, vibrant show distinguishes itself as a smart, joyous, and unabashedly fun reinvention—proof that sometimes even the best, most infamous literary tragedies are the ones that can be reworked as musical comedies.

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Photos from the National Tour of & JULIET by © Matthew Murphy, courtesy of Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Performances of & JULIET continue at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA through September 21, 2025. Tickets can be purchased online at www.SCFTA.org, by phone at 714-556-2787 or in person at the SCFTA box office (open daily at 10 am). Segerstrom Center for the Arts is located at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. For tickets or more information, visit SCFTA.org.