Review: St. Louis Shakespeare Festival's ROMEO & ZOOLIET is Wildly Entertaining

It is adorable. It’s punny and funny. It’s filled with local references. It’s Romeo & Zooliet! And it’s at The St. Louis Zoo! 

 St. Louis Shakespeare Festival and The St. Louis Zoo have teamed up to bring St. Louis a World Premiere production of family friendly Shakespeare. Written by Jennifer Joan Thompson and directed by Tom Ridgely, Romeo & Zooliet is the story of two best friends. Romeo, a prairie dog, and Juliet, a Grizzly Bear. 

Exactly what happens when the zoo closes and the zookeepers go home for the night? The animals at The St. Louis Zoo come out to play. They gather at “The Glowb” to perform their version of Romeo & Juliet. It’s the apex predator carnivores (aka, The Capulets) and the vegetation eating herbivores (aka, The Montagues) who’ve held a long-term unsettled grudge and never the two shall mix. That is until prairie dog Romeo meets his best friend, grizzly bear Juliet at the carnivore costume party.  

Jennifer Joan Thompson’s Romeo & Zooliet is a charming adaptation of Shakespeare’s tale of the doomed star-crossed lovers. Only this time, they have a tail! She’s penned a witty, laugh-filled script packed with animal puns and local references that are woven into the classic scenes from Shakespeare’s original work. There’s plenty of humor for children, and even more for adults. The story’s tragic ending is present but softened to make it more palatable for a younger audience. 

Shakespeare’s characters are represented by life size puppets based on the animals in residence at the St. Louis Zoo. These magnificent creations from world renowned Michael Curry Designs rival those they made for Disney’s The Lion King on Broadway. The puppets are brought to life by a spirted company of actors who animate their animal alter-ego.  

Director Tom Ridgely has staged a magical production. Ridgely found the whimsy in Thompson’s script and the Shakespearean personalities in Curry’s puppets. His enchanting storytelling is delightfully staged on Scott C. Neale’s imaginative calico colored tree house inspired set. He elicited playfully animated performances from his cast empowering them to shed their human skin and become their animal character. 

Acting puppeteers Ricki Franklin and Jordan Moore are sweet as the new best friends Romeo and Juliet. Both have funny moments, but Moore is comedically brilliant exaggeratedly rolling around the stage in an emotional and physical breakdown when he learns he been “trans-fer-ed" to the Schenectady Zoo. It is a bit that plays extremely well, and the audience’s laughter grows as they roll along with Moore.  

The hilarious Jacob Schmidt is transcendent as Mercutio the Red Panda and Friar John the all too slow giant tortoise. Schmidt animating the lumbering giant tortoise is a silly sight gag that gets funnier every time the turtle crosses the stage. Olivia Scicolone (Juliet’s Nurse) and Ryan Omar Stack (Paris) are wonders animating an oversized hippo and larger-than-life alligator puppet. Jeff Cummings’ advisor Friar Lawrence is present as a wise and wide-eyed owl, Rae Davis’ loyal Tiger Tybalt defends the Capulet family honor, and Nisi Sturgis Lioness Lady Capulet keeps careful watch over her daughter Juliet like a proud lion protecting its pride. Bryce Cleveland/Rian Amirikal Page (Puff), Genevieve Mazzoni/Sophia Stogsdill (Penny) are puffins and penguins watching the play and adding their commentary from a stage left box seat.  

What these actors do is a feat. Beyond animating their puppets, they easily switch back and forth from colloquial current day vernacular to Shakespeare’s early modern English while milking laughs through physically comedic athleticism and precise comedic timing. The actors are equally skilled with improv having an opportunity to garner a handful of unscripted laughs following a short rain delay and a sound system failure late in the show. The work of Ridgely, Curry, choreographer and movement coach Sam Gaitsch, and fight choreographer Zev Steinrock is present in every actor’s performance.  

There were two delays in the show on opening night. One due to weather and the other from a sound system failure late in the show. Beyond the unfortunate sound problem requiring the short delay, Stephen Ptacek’s sound design was inconsistent throughout the entire performance. Ryan Omar Stack’s microphone was in-and-out. While mostly audible from a fifth-row center seat, there were moments when it was difficult to hear all the dialogue clearly. It certainly plausible to suggest the sound couldn’t possibly have carried to the back of the historic hill where audience was seated on the lawn. It simply needs to be louder and must be addressed for the remainder of the run. 

Colored carnival lights, like those under a big top, were strung as spokes from a large tree in the center of the historic hill. The light canopy was fanciful, created a cartoon circus atmosphere, and gave lighting designer Jesse Klug an opportunity to add to the narrative with dynamic color changes and lighting effects. His illumination of the tattered fabric playhouse set enhanced the thoughtful detail of Scott Neale’s colorful creation.  

Romeo and Zooliet is an enchanting theatrical event. The ingenious Jennifer Joan Thompson’s clever script and Michael Curry’s fairy-tale like puppets are brought to fantastical life in the exuberant performances of a well-rehearsed, talented, and vivacious cast. Tom Ridgely’s leadership and collaboration with his design teams has inspired exceptionally amusing storytelling, and the collaboration to stage this on the historic hill in the St. Louis Zoo is genius.  

St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s wildly enjoyable production of Romeo & Zooliet continues at The St. Louis Zoo through August 17, 2025. Performances are Tuesday – Sunday evenings at 7:30 p.m. on the Zoo’s historic hill. Tickets are available by clicking the link below.  

Photo Credit: Theo R. Welling, Show Artwork Designer: Daniel Frumhoff