Review: & JULIET Breaks Free From Shakespeare’s Ending in Vancouver

Before & JULIET even officially began, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre already felt like it was getting ready for a pop concert. A glowing pink sign sat at the centre of the stage while instrumental versions of songs that would soon make their way into the show played in the background. For one of Broadway Across Canada’s most anticipated stops in Vancouver this season, the packed theatre seemed more than ready for what was coming. Then again, it’s hard not to feel at home when you already know most of the soundtrack.

& JULIET has built much of its identity around songs audiences have been hearing for decades, from Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys to Katy Perry, Céline Dion and Bon Jovi. They all share a connection to Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin, whose catalogue provides the foundation for the musical. On paper, squeezing this many recognizable pop hits into a retelling of Romeo and Juliet sounds like it could become a lot. Sometimes, it does. More often, & JULIET finds a surprisingly clever reason for them to be there.

The idea behind the musical is simple: what if Juliet did not die at the end of Romeo and Juliet? Writer David West Read takes the question one step further by bringing William Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, into the story themselves. Anne is less than impressed with her husband’s ending and starts suggesting a few changes of her own. Before long, the two are rewriting Juliet’s fate in real time, sometimes agreeing and often disagreeing over where her story should go next.

That push and pull gives & JULIET one of its strongest ideas. Instead of simply retelling Romeo and Juliet with pop songs added in, the musical becomes a show within a show where even the people writing the story do not quite know how it will end.

CJ Eldred and the company of the North American Tour of & JULIET. Photo Credit Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

CJ Eldred gets things started as Shakespeare with “Larger Than Life,” bringing the charisma and vocals needed to sell such a big opening number. Crystal Kellogg is equally entertaining as Anne, and the bickering between the two quickly establishes their relationship. Their back-and-forth becomes one of the funniest parts of the show, especially as Anne becomes increasingly determined to give Juliet something better than the ending Shakespeare originally wrote for her.

From there, Juliet gets her second chance. Played by Fabiola Caraballo Quijada, she begins figuring out what life looks like when Romeo is no longer supposed to be the end of her story. “...Baby One More Time” almost seems like too obvious a choice for this moment, but its placement works. The familiar lyrics suddenly take on a different meaning coming from Juliet, something & JULIET manages to do often throughout the night.

As Juliet’s rewritten story begins to take shape, Anne writes herself into it as April, who joins Juliet on her trip to Paris alongside her nurse Angélique, played by Sarah Nairne, and her friend May, played by Nico Ochoa. The trip also gives Caraballo Quijada plenty of opportunities to show why she belongs at the centre of the production. Her performance of “Domino” alongside Kellogg, Nairne and Ochoa is an early highlight, but some of her best moments come when the show slows things down. “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” performed with Ochoa, brings a different weight to a Britney Spears song much of the audience has likely heard countless times before.

That ability to make familiar music feel different is important here. & JULIET does not always present these songs as audiences remember them. Some are slowed down, rearranged or placed in completely different contexts, while others lean into their familiarity for a laugh. “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely,” for example, becomes one of the show’s funnier uses of a song title and its lyrics.

The trip to Paris also introduces François, played by Oliver Edward, and his father Lance, played by Paul-Jordan Jansen. François quickly develops a connection with May, and while their relationship moves fast, Edward and Ochoa make the chemistry believable. Ochoa has a presence that keeps drawing attention back to May, whether they are delivering a joke or taking on one of the character’s more vulnerable moments.

Fabiola Caraballo Quijada and the company of the North American Tour of & JULIET. Photo Credit Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

The Renaissance Ball brings many of these relationships together and gives the ensemble plenty to do. Jennifer Weber’s choreography is strong throughout, with Bex Robinson, appearing as Charmion, quickly becoming one of the ensemble members to watch. Robinson’s movements are sharp and precise, allowing her to stand out even with a full stage of dancers.

The ball also gives Angélique and Lance their own unexpected reunion, leading into “Teenage Dream/Break Free.” Nairne and Jansen have an easy comedic chemistry together, and their banter gives the relationship plenty of personality before the mashup becomes another crowd favourite.

For all the established performers surrounding her, Caraballo Quijada never gets lost among them. & JULIET marks her national tour debut, and she comes to the production after winning the 2025 Jimmy Award for Best Performance by an Actress. The lack of professional touring experience is hardly apparent. She is confident vocally, comfortable with the comedy and has great chemistry with nearly every performer she shares the stage with.

Just when Juliet seems to be settling into her new story, & JULIET brings back the one person who was supposed to be permanently out of it. Before that happens, “Oops!... I Did It Again” gives Caraballo Quijada and Nairne another chance to play off one another, including a dance sequence between the two that became a fun moment in the first act. By this point, the musical has become comfortable taking songs everyone knows and finding a joke, relationship or new meaning within them.

Then Romeo shows up, and Joseph Torres’ entrance with “It’s My Life” is easily one of the biggest moments of the night. Torres walks into the role with exactly the confidence the entrance calls for, backed by strong vocals and enough charisma to make Romeo’s return feel like an event. After spending an entire act watching Juliet move forward without him, his sudden appearance changes the energy in the theatre almost immediately.

Noah Marlowe and Nico Ochoa in the North American Tour of & JULIET. Photo Credit Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

Some of the biggest laughs come from Kellogg, as Anne is understandably less thrilled to see Romeo return to the story she has been trying to rewrite. From an emphatic thumbs-down to repeatedly tapping her head against the wall, Kellogg’s reactions had the audience roaring. It is a ridiculous entrance in all the right ways, and “It’s My Life” turns out to be the perfect song for it. Of all the ways & JULIET could have brought Romeo back from the dead, sending Torres onto the stage singing Bon Jovi is one of the most entertaining. It also makes for a punchy end to Act I.

Torres keeps the momentum going into Act II, where Romeo becomes far more than the tragic romantic lead audiences know from Shakespeare. His Romeo is funny, self-assured and occasionally clueless, with Torres knowing how far to push the character without turning him into a caricature. He also works well alongside Caraballo Quijada, especially as Juliet begins questioning whether getting Romeo back means she should choose him again.

That question becomes more important as the second act moves away from simply rewriting Juliet’s ending and starts focusing on what she wants her new beginning to look like. “Since U Been Gone” is a natural fit here, while the combination of “Problem” and “Can’t Feel My Face” is one of the more unexpected mashups of the night. By this point, the sheer number of familiar songs also makes clear how much of Max Martin’s work has made its way into pop music over the years.

The second act also gives Kellogg one of her strongest vocal moments with “That’s the Way It Is.” Kellogg provides much of the show’s humour, but her scenes with Juliet give the role another side. Through April, Anne becomes a source of support for Juliet as she tries to figure out what she wants for herself, and their relationship gradually takes on an almost mother-daughter quality. Kellogg handles both the comedy and the more personal parts of the role well.

The company of the North American Tour of & JULIET. Photo Credit Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

Then there is the boy band. Bringing Shakespeare, Lance, Romeo and François together for “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back),” “As Long as You Love Me,” “It’s Gonna Be Me” and “Shape of My Heart” is exactly as much fun as it sounds. Eldred, Jansen, Torres and Edward fully commit to the bit, complete with boy-band choreography that makes the whole sequence even funnier. For a musical built around Max Martin’s catalogue, a boy band feels almost inevitable, and the sequence ends up being a highlight of the show.

Those larger numbers also show how much Weber’s choreography contributes to the production. & JULIET rarely stays still for long, but the movement never feels added simply because another pop song has started. The ensemble is constantly involved, while the choreography, lighting, sound and occasional bursts of confetti give several numbers the atmosphere of a live concert. The sound inside the Queen Elizabeth Theatre was also well balanced, allowing the vocals to come through clearly without losing the impact of the music behind them.

Jukebox musicals tend to be a love-it-or-hate-it experience, and with a song list this long, & JULIET easily could have felt like an attempt to squeeze in as many hits as possible. Instead, the songs make sense within the story more often than expected. Some choices are intentionally obvious, others take on a different meaning in their new context, and a few are there because the joke is too good to pass up. There is also a comfort in hearing so much familiar music. At times, watching & JULIET feels closer to being at a concert where you already know all the words, and that familiarity makes getting caught up in the fun easy.

 

The company of the North American Tour of & JULIET. Photo Credit Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

The show does start to lean a little heavily on its jukebox format toward the end. There are a lot of songs packed into the second half, and at times another number arrives before the previous one has much time to settle. Still, it never reaches the point where the songs begin to drag or the show starts to feel long. For a musical running approximately two and a half hours, & JULIET moves at a steady pace, with the story underneath all those pop hits keeping things moving.

Part of that comes from the different relationships within Juliet’s rewritten story. Romantic love is only one piece of it. There is Juliet and April’s growing bond, Anne and Shakespeare’s complicated marriage, Angélique and Lance finding their way back to one another, and May and François figuring out what their connection means to them. Different identities and relationships are treated as part of the story rather than something requiring a big announcement, and the representation works better because of it.

There are moments when & JULIET gets cheesy, and the show seems perfectly aware of it. A pop musical built around Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys and Katy Perry does not need to pretend to be something more serious. At the same time, enough emotion sits underneath the comedy to keep the story from becoming one long joke. Finding room for both is a big reason why a concept that sounds slightly ridiculous on paper works onstage.

By the time the confetti falls and “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” brings the night to a close, the pop-concert feeling from the beginning has come full circle. & JULIET is funny and emotional, while having plenty of fun with what audiences expect from both Shakespeare and a Broadway musical. The production knows when to laugh at itself without losing the parts of Juliet’s story that matter.

With all the hype surrounding & JULIET before its arrival in Vancouver, expectations were high, and this is one show that lives up to them. The familiar music certainly helps, but the cast, comedy and story give the production an identity beyond its playlist. Whether you grew up listening to Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys or simply want a fun night at the theatre, & JULIET makes a strong case for rewriting the ending.

& JULIET, presented by Broadway Across Canada, plays at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver through October 4. For tickets, visit the link below.

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