Let me preface my review for the 2016 live production of Romeo and Juliet by declaring that I am absolutely not the target audience for it. I did everything I could to get out of studying Shakespeare in school (both in English and drama classes), and I've never since learned to appreciate it. Among his works, Romeo and Juliet might be my worst. I'm very sorry, but I hate it. Why would I sit through three hours of a live, very stylized production of it? For love of Lily James. She won me (and everyone else) over during Downton Abbey in 2012, and in the following decade, she proved that leaving the franchise was the not the breaking of her - but the making of her! Before reaching the tender age of thirty-five, she's tackled Jane Austen, Daphne du Maurier, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy. She's mimicked the mannerisms of Meryl Streep, Joan Fontaine, Anne Baxter, and Pamela Anderson. She's been directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh twice (once would be honor enough), and in comedies, dramas, period pieces, and musicals, acted alongside A-tier actors: Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Jim Broadbent, Pierce Brosnan, Bradley Cooper, Tom Courtenay, Ralph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Carey Mulligan, Gary Oldman, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Sarsgaard, Maggie Smith, Meryl Streep, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Emma Thompson. I'm so proud of her versatility, and beyond happy for her success.
Alright, I'm done with my fan letter. Now you know why I sat through Shakespeare to see her play the beautiful, ill-fated (and in my opinion, stupid) Juliet. I was very pleased with her performance, and hopefully her director was, too. If you've read my reviews, you know that I've frequently called Shakespearean a foreign language, one which I can't often decipher. When lovely Lily opened her mouth, I was able to understand about eighty percent of what she said - high praise! She had vivacious energy, irresistible innocence, and incredible passion.
As for the production, you should know what you're getting into. Although filmed live, it's in black-and-white, which is a bit odd, since you're constantly aware that the audience is able to watch the actors in living color. It's a modernized setting, with suits, skinny ties, and knee-length dresses. Between scene changes, jazz music plays and the actors frolic about. Randomly, people will ad-lib Italian (not interfering with the written dialogue) to remind you that it takes place in Verona. If you can get past all that, you can watch Richard Madden as a handsome and sweet Romeo, Derek Jacobi as a devoted Mercutio (a cute casting choice, since, if you really think about it, he could be an older friend of the family rather than a contemporary), and a cast who obviously loves Shakespeare far more than I do.
