Let's hope this take doesn't get me jumped. Btw there will be spoilers.
Before I begin I will state two things. This play is obviously not intended for me (it's for millennial leaning people, which I am not) and I watched it with someone who had a similar view point as me but a different background (someone who the okay was actually intended for.)
Recently I watched & Juliet with a family member of mine. From the get go I could tell something about the whole play just didn't resonate with me. The play read a lot to me as a 14 year olds Wattpad fanfic.
All the characters felt pretty 1 demensional and didn't necessarily have any depth. Even take Juliet, the MAIN character, felt empty. Yeah sure it's supposed to be about Juliet finding herself, but at the end I (and the person I watched it with) was like "Who is Juliet?" They didn't expand on her pass much of being a "girl boss."
What does Juliet like to do for fun? Party??? Maybe, they could've easily, instead, expanded on Juliet having an interest in music. There were plenty of opportunities! When Juliet was introduced she had headphones, make her love music and producing it!!!
They are also just randomly in Paris because they decidee to ride a carriage that is pulled by a bike (which William Shakespeare is driving) and meet the Dubois family (who everyone keeps calling "The Boys" be cause har har har).
All the original characters added were random and definitely read as someone's ocs. With May (the nonbinary friend of Juliet) being a very stereotypical gay best friend, and then April (Anne's insert (even though her insert is already Juliet??)) who didn't have any character building outside of being an insert.
The moment Francois was added I just knew he was gonna be a problem. He decides to get engaged to Juliet (who agrees because her parents were gonna make her a nun until she gets engaged) but Francois is in love with May. We're supposed to cheer for May and Francois, who met like two days ago, but hate Romeo and Juliet for knowing each other for only two days? It's very hypocritical thinking.
"The entire play reads as very millennial cringe" -quote the millennial who witnessed the play with me.
When I was reading the playbook before the play actually started I was looking at the songs and trying to predict where it would go as a jukebox musical.
I was not prepared for "Not a girl, not yet a woman" to be used for May, who is nonbinary. Out of all the osngs they used this one? I was heavily expecting Juliet to sing this song to show how she's grown up across everything that happens to her by she's still technically a child.
I get a lot of the time period they were pulling songs from didn't necessarily have a lot of songs about nonbinary folk, but they really couldn't find a better song?
In truth all of the songs feel just added in to try to push for nostalgia out of its audience. Personally (and with the worst with me) it failed to strike as nostalgic. Not to include how we were both disappointed they used barely 3 stanzas of any song throughout the entire play.
Anne's character feels very strange, especially when she inserts herself as a 14 year old's best friend, later Anne points this out and then randomly decides to make all the characters be in their 20s which already undermines Romeo and Juliet's original story of them being young and in love, but nevertheless.
Later on Romeo comes back to life randomly and is supposed to be a douchebag??? Like they make him exes with basically everyone (depsite him originally only having one ex in the original story), but they also fail to actually make him a douche?? He's more like an idiot who is very romantic.
Sometime in the story when Juliet and Francois are engaged Romeo, Shakespeare, Francois, May, and Francois's Father, Lance (who is now engaged to the Nurse from the original story?) all make a boy band based of the Backstreet Boys. Then Francois, right before he gets married, sings "It's gonna be me" but instead says "It's gonna be May" as that's who he's really in love with.
Me and the person I was watching this with both turned to look at each other anytime something liked this happened. But the 60 year old ladies around us sure were loving it.
Now I'll admit the rest of the theater was rather loving this movie, and maybe just me and my guest just weren't the right people for it.
Of course, I hold no hatred towrads the actors of anyone really woring on the play. Personally I really liked the sets and the costumes weren't bad at all. But great actors and settings can't carry a bad book. Not even the songs could with how nonsensical it all was.
But this really was just a rant due to how stunned I was after how unprepared I was for it all. If someone does have altering opinions or wants to point something I missed please do feel free to tell me.
