It Isn't Only Because of Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler: Why We Still Can't Get Enough of Romeo and Juliet
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Eleven major productions, all alike in dignity, have packed 2024 with the famous tale of star-crossed lovers doomed to take their own lives. And, frankly, if you count short runs and ballet versions that’s probably not even all of them.
Since Washington, DC’s Faction of Fools Theatre Company kicked off its Commedia dell'Arte-inspired Romeo & Juliet on January 16, intrepid theater-lovers could crisscross the United States and Canada and spend every single evening catching the feud between the Capulets and Montagues.
A 75-minute “Short Shakespeare” production appealed to time-strapped audiences in Chicago; a maximalist 27-person cast led the Stratford Festival’s version; and the Folger Shakespeare Library’s production turned the Montagues and the Capulets into fierce political rivals in true DC fashion. The options have gone on and on and on and on and on.
And that’s to say nothing of Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers’ West End stint this summer or the Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler-led Broadway fever dream featuring an excess of sequins, Jack Antonoff techno beats, and Gen Z feats of strength. And if thoughts of a Romeo & Juliet-less 2025 keep you up at night, you still have the Milwaukee Rep and Hartford Stage productions to look forward to.
But what’s behind this flurry of familial fury? In general, a Shakespeare production is never hard to find. There are theaters around the world that dedicate themselves solely to the Bard, and his plays are all in the public domain, making them free for any theater to produce and manipulate as it sees fit. Carla Della Gatta, theater historian and dramaturg for the Folger Theatre’s production, sees this malleability as an invitation for innovation, especially because of how familiar Americans are with Romeo & Juliet in particular.
The play is taught in a whopping 93% of ninth-grade curricula, and even if you didn’t pay attention in English class, it’s a story so familiar that it’s been adapted into films like West Side Story, referenced in Taylor Swift songs, and even spun off into a modern musical sequel. So, when theater makers choose to go back to the source material, a strong point of view helps. “It’s the one story that most everyone knows well enough that no matter what you do to it, you can still hear the Romeo & Juliet story within it,” says Della Gatta. “It allows a template for taking risks.”
Finding inspiration for a production is often a matter of looking around at what’s going on in the world. Shakespeare’s plays often touch on general-enough themes that they can serve as a mirror to myriad societal conflicts—war, power, prejudice, politics, division—all things that are very hard to escape in the American zeitgeist right now. “The plays are 400 years old and are often used as a litmus test for the cultural moment,” says Ayanna Thompson, Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and dramaturg for the Broadway production of Romeo & Juliet. “The plays are malleable in terms of what you want to emphasize. There's always a way of thinking about our present moment through Shakespeare.”
Sam Gold, Tony Award-winning director of the Broadway production, sees this as a distinct advantage of the canon. “These plays are always incredibly relevant,” he says. “Every time I do [a Shakespeare play], everyone talks to me about how, ‘You picked the perfect time to do it.’” But his timing for Romeo & Juliet was circumstantial at best, he admits. He’s spent the last 15 years working through his goal of directing all of what he considers the “major” Shakespearean tragedies. After directing Othello, Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet was the last one on his list. (Sorry, Timon of Athens fans. You’ll have to petition Gold for a more completionist approach to his tragedy project.)
Even still, he’s found no shortage of reasons to stage Romeo & Juliet in the here and now. Gold points to the war in Gaza as just one of those: “Whenever we are struggling with young people dying unnecessarily somewhere, this play really speaks to that,” he says. “You start to see a surge in some of the [Shakespearean] tragedies when there is something tragic that we're facing.”
And it’s not just war abroad that’s been on Gold’s mind. “Romeo & Juliet is fundamentally a play about teenage suicide,” he reminds. “High-school-age kids are going through a mental health crisis post-Covid.” Per the CDC, 40% of adolescents ages 12 to 17 reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2023, and a staggering 20% reported seriously considering attempting suicide.
Gen Z, who range from 12 to 27 years old, is facing a flailing economy and an unstable job market and is staring down the barrel of the climate crisis. Like millennials before them, they’re finding themselves subject to the criticism of the older generation—and they’re pushing back. “It is a moment of intergenerational tension,” says Thompson. “We're facing the fact that the next generation will not do better than their parents. It’s the first time in our American mythology that people are coming to terms with that.”
So, it’s Gen Z’s turn to recognize themselves in Juliet and her Romeo, the pair that find love and freedom against all odds only to see it crushed by a conflict they can’t relate to and are powerless to stop. Emilia Suárez, American Repertory Theater’s Juliet and an elder Gen Z-er at the age of 27, feels her generation’s boldness is well-earned. “Young people really have something to say,” she says. “They're really, really angry, and they don't feel heard.” But even still, Gen Z is finding ways to get their message out there. “Gen Z and Gen Alpha just have more access to information,” says Suárez. “And they are insistent upon being seen because of technology.” (A luxury that would’ve really helped Romeo and Juliet better communicate their escape plot.)
But even if Romeo & Juliet were the most relatable play in the world, the notion of getting teens and twenty-somethings to pack the house for iambic pentameter feels like an uphill battle. That’s where the heartthrobs come in. In 1968, director Franco Zeffirelli cast a 16-year-old Leonard Whiting as his Romeo in part for his “magnificent face” and “gentle melancholy.” His Juliet, a 15-year-old Olivia Hussey, controversially appeared nude in the film alongside her underage co-star. Both later chose to sue Paramount Pictures for sexual abuse. Though the film’s legacy has been marred by the controversy, upon its release it was a box office smash and was particularly popular with teens thanks to its age-appropriate casting. Thirty years later, Baz Luhrmann took the same tack, casting a 21-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio opposite a 17-year-old Claire Danes for his 1996 technicolor film adaptation.
Almost 30 years later still, DiCaprio and Danes don’t hold the same esteem for today’s teens. “When I have referenced the Luhrmann film recently, my students who are Gen Z will say things like, ‘Ugh, Leonardo DiCaprio is so old,’” says Thompson. In the intervening years, there hasn’t been a new Hollywood version to fill the void, giving the theatrical spate room to shine.
Though the medium is different, the casting techniques remain the same—cast your leads with YA stars to bring in the target demographic. Broadway’s Romeo, Kit Connor, wrapped Gen Z-ers of all genders around his finger playing the bisexual Nick Nelson in Netflix’s Heartstopper. Connor’s Juliet, Rachel Zegler, made an unintentional Juliet audition portraying Maria in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 West Side Story remake.
Even though these stars put butts in seats, to diminish their presence to good looks and social media followings would be simply insulting to both the actors and the audience. These young stars have got the chops to carry the show. “To see young people doing Shakespeare's verse so beautifully, so clearly, so compellingly, how could you not love it?” asks Thompson. “If Kit Connor is what gets [audiences] through the door, that’s perfectly fine.”
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