Review: all-Canadian & Juliet is cause for rejoicing

You know the expression, “The show must go on”? It applies in spades to the new all-Canadian staging of the hit musical & Juliet (Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭).

Not only did the production endure several cast illnesses leading up to last Sunday’s scheduled opening, but a few minutes in, a stage manager informed us they were going to have to pause to fix some technical issues. All that, as they say, did not bode well.

Well, the show went on — and triumphed. In this joyful, exuberant production, it deserves to keep going on for years. As of this writing, it’s been extended until mid-May.

I was clearly a fan of the original pre-Broadway show that landed here in the summer of 2022. (If you haven’t noticed, the raucous standing ovation for that show is the wallpaper for my newsletter/site.) At the time, I remember thinking if the Mirvishes had been able to mount an all-Canadian staging concurrent with the Broadway version (which they had done successfully with Mamma Mia!), it would have run forever.

If you missed it here, or on Broadway (where it continues to run), the clever, self-aware plot begins something like this.

William Shakespeare (George Krissa) is about to premiere his tragedy Romeo and Juliet. But when his wife, Anne Hathaway (Julia McLellan) — cue knowing jokes about the name — sees how he intends to end it, she offers to co-write an alternate ending, one in which Juliet doesn’t kill herself but, accompanied by her Nurse (Sarah Nairne), bestie May (Matt Raffy) and April (McLellan’s Anne, in disguise), goes on to have further adventures.

The hook? The dramatis personae get to belt out songs from the Max Martin catalogue to express what they’re feeling.

What makes the show such a delight is how smoothly book writer David West Read (Schitt’s Creek) has connected the various strands of the plot — and how shrewdly director Luke Sheppard (Just For One Day) has staged the action.

They’ve got a lot of characters to establish; not just Juliet and her family in Verona, but once she and her Elizabethan entourage take a carriage ride to Paris, a possible new romance in François (Brandon Antonio), as well as his father, Lance (David Silvestri), who it turns out has a past with Juliet’s Nurse, Angelique. Oh yeah; there’s another major character (played by David Jeffery) who appears near the end of the first act to complicate things further.

The result is a clever show that delights in the irreverent mix of eras and fashions (sumptuous outfitted by Paloma Young), commenting on everything from period theatrical conventions to (especially) the limited opportunities available to women. Paralleling Juliet’s story of empowerment and autonomy is Anne’s story of a woman who demands that her famous husband sees her as more than just the mother of their children. (Admirers of the current film Hamnet will appreciate this theme.)

Another storyline that feels especially urgent today involves Juliet’s non-binary friend May, whose romantic arc and delivery of the Britney Spears song “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” takes on new levels of relevance and poignancy in the context of the show.

Don’t think for a second that this all-Canadian cast is any less good than the starrier names we saw three years ago.

In fact, some performers made me see and think about the parts in entirely new ways. Nairne, for instance, brings a spontaneity and comic timing to the role of Angelique — not to mention a gorgeous voice — that is consistently thrilling. Silvestri, meanwhile, exudes just the right amount of gravitas to communicate Lance’s mix of emotions regarding both her and his directionless son. Guided by Sheppard, he knows how to handle a line about his own regrets so that it hits with extra emotional force when he’s talking to François.

Antonio, who travelled with the company to New York, makes a geekily charming, winsome François, who makes one of the biggest character changes in the show. He has great chemistry with Raffy (also from the first company), whose May stands (and sings) up for what they want, including in the well-chosen duet “Whataya Want from Me.”

Krissa caps off his fantastic Mirvish year with yet another portrait of a hard-to-resist, privileged cad, winking smugly at the audience with every Shakespeare reference. But near the end his character drops his reliable shtick and delivers a tender, heartfelt couple of lines that will break your heart.

McLellan, who was an alternate in our production of Six but who’s mostly done supporting roles here in Toronto (Kelly v. Kelly), is a revelation as Anne, a part that requires brisk comic wit, considerable dramatic chops and a voice that can belt out a number made famous by no less than Céline Dion in one of the musical’s vocal showstoppers.

And then there’s Sears, whose star rises even further with this performance. Not only does she have to mature from a frightened girl to a young woman confidently in control of her life, connecting emotionally with half a dozen characters, but she has to sing some of the most famous songs in the pop canon, making them her own with her soulful low notes and soaring climaxes.

That doesn’t even include what she’s asked to do physically in Sheppard’s staging, which involves hanging from a chandelier, fist-pumping triumphantly on a rising platform (Soutra Gilmour’s sets are full of shiny, bright eye-candy), and executing Jennifer Weber’s demanding, joyful choreography for the hard-working ensemble.

During the intermission, many people who’d seen the show before were exclaiming that this production worked even better than it did before. I agree. Elbows up, Canadian theatre.

& Juliet continues at the Royal Alexandra Theatre (260 King West) until May 17. Ticket details here