Loose Moments Photos - Broadway

The production's strong design and sense of style provide for a terrific, if slightly uneven, evening.

A story relevant to generations past and present, Shakespeare's cautionary tale of love serves as a modern metaphor for the influence of society over individual freedom. For although the personal journeys of Romeo & Juliet are integral to the tale, this is a love story within a clear social and political context - the collective identity of the group is considered more important than the desires of its citizens, dooming the young lovers from "opposite sides of the tracks" to their tragic end as their personal lives are molded by the hostilities of the previous era. Beginning in the 1930s during a time when a rigid dictatorial system had taken over the country, the Capulet family represents the upper-class conservatives with stiff, militaristic movement, while the Montagues represent the liberal low and middle classes, danced with loose, flowing motions laced with pedestrian naturalism.