The stars of screen and stage align as Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Tony Award Nominee Condola Rashad (Stick Fly) take on the roles of Shakespeare’s legendary star-crossed lovers, ROMEO AND JULIET.
The most famous love story ever told returns to Broadway for the first time in 36 years in a stunning new production from five-time Tony nominee David Leveaux. Jealousy. Prejudice. Betrayal. And the chance that true love could actually conquer all. That’s Romeo and Juliet.
When you get to the theater, make sure to share the love! Patrons are encouraged to bring locks to hang on our #RJLOVELOCK fence outside of our theater. Patrons can also check into ROMEO AND JULIET on Broadway on Facebook and receive a free lock from the merchandise stand.
Leveaux is a highly intelligent director but for the life of me I couldn't find much meaning in the objects that waft semi-symbolically throughout the performance...there are spectacular bursts of fire, generating more heat than Bloom and Rashad, apart from a passionate first kiss, manage to do...I cannot complain about the panoply of acting styles here; uniformity of performance usually means monotony of performance. It is, in fact, the jolting difference between Rashad and her nurse, the ever-valuable Jayne Houdyshell, that invests their scenes with aliveness. The disparity between Rashad's timidity and the power of Chuck Cooper, as Lord Capulet, also drives the performance. Christian Camargo, so disturbingly good as the title character's older brother on TV's Dexter, brings a similar eerie intensity here to Mercutio.
Unfortunately, the biggest sparks on stage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre come from giant black fire-spouting tubes that move in and out of view. There is precious little chemistry between Rashad and Bloom, making the all-consuming passion that would undo both their noble families a matter more of conjecture and assertion than anything demonstrable. It's a shame, because both are talented actors who aren't daunted by the Bard's poetry.
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