Everyone knows the story: Romeo meets Juliet, Juliet falls in love with Romeo and her doomed love pits family against family. Seeing no other option, Romeo drinks a bottle of poison and Juliet … runs to a nightclub in Paris.
It may not be the story you’re used to, but it’s the one told at the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto.
& Juliet, from now until August 14, is a new musical about an alternative story for Shakespeare’s character Juliet, while still living an independent life, set to the songs of Swedish pop Max Martin.
And although the 2019 play originally premiered in London’s West End, it had a major Canadian connection long before it arrived in that country. Behind the scenes, Schitt’s Creek writer David West Read wrote the play alongside Martin, always intending to return it to his home province of Ontario.
“It’s very special for me to be here and get back to working with other Canadians,” Read said in an interview with CBC. “I mean, for me, that’s as good as it gets: doing a show here.”
Despite always having a desire to bring great stage production to Canada, and despite his ability to work consistently in other industries in Canada, Read says it has never been so easy.
Actors Stark Sands, left, and Betsy Wolfe appear in this rehearsal photo of & Juliet. (Matthew Murphy)
Aside from the COVID-related closures, the last of which kept theaters across the country closed for nearly two years, with Toronto’s Mirvish theaters only this year announcing its first full season since 2019 – Read says that the way the industry is set up prevents both audiences and actors from accepting Canada as the capital of the theater.
Early in his career, Read said he had to move to New York to find a way to enter the industry, a common decision made by many creators and actors in that country. But part of the reason, he said, is because both the performers and the audience assume that Broadway is the end of everything, without recognizing the talent and variety of productions here at home.
“Sometimes it’s hard for Canadians to find this international stage,” Read said, “and I think sometimes Canadians don’t celebrate other Canadians enough until they’ve been celebrated around the world.
“I wish Canadians had a little more pride in the talent we have here.”
To be fair, Canada still doesn’t have a long history as a Broadway provider.
In 2006, Don McKellar’s satirical musical The Drowsy Chaperone arrived in New York after its Toronto premiere in 1997, and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical Book and Best Soundtrack. original, while only a few years later, Brian Hill’s The. Story of My Life ran short on Broadway in 2009.
The BC Ride musical The Cyclone brought the comedy about six teenagers trapped on the Cyclone roller coaster off Broadway in 2015. Earlier, there was Billy Bishop Goes To War, a satirical production about the Canadian flying ace of the First World War I, and Rockabye Hamlet, a rock musical based on the tragedy of Shakespeare.
And of course, there’s Come From Away.
This play, which tells the story of 7,000 airline passengers stranded in Newfoundland after the 9/11 attacks, is widely known as the most successful Canadian musical of all time. It opened on Broadway in 2017 and surpassed The Drowsy Chaperone’s 674 performances to become the longest Canadian musical on Broadway. It will close in October this year after entertaining more than a million guests and with 1,670 performances, making it not only the longest-running Canadian musical, but also the 49th longest musical in the history of Broadway.
MIRAR | The actor blames the end of Come from Away’s career for the lack of government support:
The Canadian production of ‘Come From Away’ is finally over after a brief return to the stage
Canada Tonight guest presenter Hillary Johnstone talks to Ali Momen, a cast member of ‘Come From Away’, about the permanent end of theatrical production due to COVID-19, the lack of government support and what meant being part of Canada’s most important activities. successful musical.
Even though these Canadian musicals scored, there are still far fewer Great White North musicals on the Great White Way than the American ones. While part of this is because there are simply fewer art creators in Canada, it also comes down to an image problem.
“Most Broadway shows fail … because of the nature of the economy.” said Lynn Slotkin, Canadian theater critic. But while, on average, only one in five Broadway shows recovers their investment, there are also difficulties in making a profitable career in Canada, as “Canadian shows don’t have such a good chance.”
Slotkin said the main difference in the support the government theater receives. While Come From Away’s Broadway career closes in October 2022, Canadian production closed in December 2021, just a week after returning from a 21-month hiatus for COVID.
LISTENING David West Read about the reimagining of Romeo and Juliet with the musical jukebox & Juliet:
20: 37David West Read about the reimagining of Romeo and Juliet with the musical jukebox & Juliet
David West Read is underway. He is a well-known writer and producer for Schitt’s Creek, but also wrote the book of musical success & Juliet, which incorporates music from composer Max Martin’s giant pop hit list. Read joined Tom Power to talk about how to write an alternate ending to Romeo and Juliet and how he turned tragedy into a modern romantic comedy.
“In other parts of the world, the government has stepped up to support the commercial theater sector by providing a financial safety net so that the sector can reopen and play during the pandemic, thus protecting the tens of thousands of good jobs that creates the sector “. theater producer David Mirvish wrote at the time of the closing.
“But in Canada there is no such government support. And without this safety net it is impossible for production to take another long pause. The costs of reopening a second time are prohibitive and risky.”
At the start of the pandemic, the U.S. government approved approximately $ 16 billion in aid for entertainment productions, with more than $ 30 million in the US alone Hamilton – which Slotkin said reflects a broader tendency to support theatrical productions there than in Canada.
While Canada announced $ 60 million in support of the live performance industry, which went into effect in April this year, many in the industry said it was too little and too late for harassed arts workers who already had to spend two years with little or no work.
“It’s the difference between thinking and knowing that theater, Broadway, whatever it is, is important to the tourism of your city and your country,” Slotkin said. “And governments here don’t value it that much.”
“The Broadway brand is hard to beat”
And the colloquium effect, since subsidized musicals are successful on the same avenues in some rarefied places, is a misconception between the public and the actors that a musical has not arrived until it has been played in a d ‘they.
“All the big cities will have very, very good theaters. [There are] theatrical opportunities in Canada that are comparable to New York City, ”said David Jeffery, an actor from Medicine Hat, Alta.
“It’s kind of dispelling that idea that if you don’t get to New York, you didn’t get as high as you can get. While the Broadway brand is hard to beat, it’s not like this top of the chain. If you don’t get there you come, you didn’t do it as a thing. “
David Jeffery of Red Deer will take on the role of Connor Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen, a stage musical that has been running since December 2016 on Broadway. (David Jeffery)
Jeffery himself fell a bit accidentally into a Broadway role, and eventually got a spot as Connor Murphy to Beloved Evan Hansen after sending an unexpected email to a casting director. But the difficulties in getting permission to work in the United States, moving between the two countries, and auditioning as a non-American (since the Actors’ Equity Association often requires American actors to consider themselves first) ) means going down south is no more. more appetizing than staying in Canada.
But still, Read, Slotkin, and Jeffery said the audience often only sees that a musical “has been made” if it has hit Broadway. This excludes a large number of productions and pushes talented actors to leave, simply because there is no Broadway or West End name to point to.
Meanwhile, & Juliet also hopes to head to the United States, and finds herself in what producers call her “pre-Broadway production.” But Read explained that making the musical show in Toronto and bringing it to an audience that seems to enjoy it even more than London embodies the reason it did.
“I think the best musicals feel like they unite people, that there’s a sense of community,” he said. “It’s like why we go to the theater, to be with other people and to feel the common bonds of our experiences.”