Review: ROMEO AND JULIET at Milwaukee Rep

Moving Shakespeare’s classic plays to different, usually more modern, environs is not new — and doesn’t always make the transition with losing something in translation, but the Milwaukee Rep’s “Romeo and Juliet” — presented in Appalachian dress and accented with bluegrass, folk and country music — is a most successful pairing – unlike the titular lovers.

There are few stories as well known as “Romeo and Juliet,” when but Juliet (Piper Jean Bailey) and her Romeo (Kenneth Hamilton) profess their love for each other over the balcony, it has a freshness that belies the age of the play.  The actors innocently passionate delivery makes it feel like we’re hearing the famous words for the first time.

Adapter-director Laura Braza and music director Dan Kazemi create a new, accessible world for the audience without ever giving up on the Bard’s poetry.

Unlike the fictional lovers, actors Bailey and Hamilton are well supported by both Capulets and Montagues – as well as other key residents of fair Verona.

Matthew C. Yee is a powerful catalyst to tragedy and tunefulness – playing multiple roles  as both a strolling troubadour and the fiery Mercutio.

Yee isn’t the only multi-tasker. Other the Bailey and Hamilton, almost every other actor takes on multiple roles – and gives each its due.

Though "Romeo and Juliet" is never a powerful as when Bailey and Hamilton are together, there are many other standout performances, including Matt Daniels and the raging Lord Capulet and Alex Keiper and both Juliet’s nurse and Escalus, the prince of Verona who has had enough of the feud nonsense.