Six years ago, I saw a production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in NYC’s Central Park and it was magical. For one thing, the set and lighting played an instrumental part in the production. The set was surrounded by water, providing a sense of urgency and the stage was alive with the fighting between the Montagues and Capulets. But most of all, Lauren Ambrose played a fiercely passionate Juliet to Oscar Isaac’s Romeo and her performance has forever lingered in my mind. Back then the New York Times’ Ben Brantley best summed up her performance: “….it is Ambrose who gives the production its devastatingly torn heart, making Juliet into a compelling bundle of mixed instincts.”
The reason I’m even mentioning Ambrose’s performance is that I am reiterating that Juliet’s character is pivotal to this dramatic, tension filled story that takes place in Verona. In David Leveaux’s production currently playing on Broadway, Juliet is played by Condola Rashad, along side the wildly famous Orlando Bloom, making it an interracial pairing. I was quite excited to see them perform together in what would be his Broadway debut, thinking the couple would bring the play into 2013. Their pairing had enormous potential, according to critics, however, in my opinion, she lacks everything that it takes the play role skillfully. I found myself lamenting over the brilliance that Ambrose brought into the Public production just six short years ago. Her lack of chemistry with Bloom was disappointing to say the least, and it took too much away from the show’s dramatic story. After all, Romeo & Juliet is one of the most famous plays in the world. As for Bloom, I can’t really knock his performance, but I imagine it must have been hard to take the role seriously playing Romeo wearing a hoodie and entering the stage on a motorcycle.
At first, I was worried about not liking a Shakespeare play on Broadway. I so wanted to like it! I want Broadway to continue to bring Shakespeare to the masses! But the reviews have been simpatico. Ben Brantley called the production “overstuffed” but wrote that Bloom gives a “first-rate Broadway debut,” but has an “incandescent” Rashad. The New York Daily News says Rashad struggles with the language and often comes off muddled. The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney wrote that the interracial casting “seems more like window-dressing than evidence of a dramatically cohesive textual analysis.” Rasahd’s performance “is all surface sweetness and vulnerability.”
What could have been a play with an important story to tell, about young people who hold steadfast to their dreams and principles, about love crossing racial boundaries, just became one big disappointment to this lover of everything Shakespeare.
Disclosure: I was provided with complimentary tickets to facilitate this review but all opinions are my own.
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