“Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow”: & Juliet reimagines Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
& Juliet, a comedic musical brought to the stage of London’s West End in 2019, rewrites the ending of William Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy Romeo and Juliet and explores the scenario: What would happen if Juliet didn’t commit suicide and sacrifice her life for Romeo? In & Juliet, Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway, opens the play by proposing a new journey for Juliet where she makes autonomous decisions and gains agency over her love life. In addition to the feminist narrative, the play features a diverse cast and queer love stories. Playwrights David West Read and Max Martin experiment between high and popular culture through & Juliet’s soundtrack composed entirely of pop music anthems. Through transforming Romeo and Juliet, a play now considered an element of “high” culture, into & Juliet, a progressive romantic comedy, the playwrights sought to incorporate new voices into the iconic narrative in order to reimagine the audience for a Shakespearean production.
Shakespeare’s plays, including Romeo and Juliet, are considered high culture, where productions of the plays are intended for an intellectual elite audience. When crafting the plot and production of & Juliet, the playwrights made various intentional decisions in order to shift and reinvent the audience for a Shakespearean play. When discussing the reception of art, Schudson (1987) writes, “It is now argued with equal vigor that the quality of art lies in how it is received, or in how it is created within the context of reception, rather than in some quality intrinsic to the art object itself” (p. 531). Schudson argues that considering the audience and critic during the creation of art is crucial as the interpretation and the reception of art is equally as valuable as the contents of the art itself. Thus, when transforming the high culture play Romeo and Juliet, into & Juliet, a popular culture production, the playwrights altered the plot of the original story with goals of broadening and diversifying their intended audience. Through the experiment between high and low, & Juliet subverts the expectations of high culture and emphasizes the playwrights’ desires to change the way that the narrative of Romeo and Juliet is received.
In order to appeal to a greater audience, & Juliet is transformed into a popular culture artifact through its exclusively pop music soundtrack. Scholar John Storey (2009) argues that popular culture can be defined as the culture left over after we establish what is considered high culture. When describing high culture, he writes, “Being difficult ensures its exclusive status as high culture. Its very difficulty literally excludes; it guarantees the exclusivity of its audience” (p. 6). While Romeo and Juliet can be considered difficult and garners an exclusive audience, & Juliet is the antithesis of difficult as its pop music soundtrack is accessible and well known by each member of the audience before they even enter the theater. The show includes iconic, commercialized, and popular songs such as Katy Perry’s “Roar” and The Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it That Way,” which welcomes a broad audience beyond those that are interested in Shakespearean literature. The strategic decision to write & Juliet as a jukebox musical emphasizes the playwrights’ intention to transform Shakespeare into popular culture for consumption by a mass audience.
& Juliet subverts the patriarchal narrative of Romeo and Juliet and transforms the story into one of female empowerment by incorporating new voices and increasing representation. Anne Hathaway opens the show with a proposal to write her own ending to her husband’s play. Instead of having Juliet commit suicide after discovering Romeo’s dead body, Juliet will have a new beginning, choose her own path, and embark on a journey where she will gain agency over her love life. In her piece on feminism and popular culture, Zeisler (2008) writes, “Without pop culture’s limited images of women, many actual women in the real world might not have been inspired to fight for more and better representations of themselves” (p. 9). Living amidst a male dominated society, & Juliet’s Anne Hathaway was accustomed to male writers who wrote stories with limited images of women. As a result, Anne Hathaway was inspired to reinvent Juliet’s previous role into one of power, strength, and agency. Additionally, Zeisler argues that a reclamation and improvement of popular culture requires both an increase of women, people of color, and queer people in the creation of content and more representation in the content itself (Zeisler, 2008, p. 20). & Juliet increases such representation through diversifying the cast and changing the plot. For example, Romeo’s name is literally removed from the title of the play, and Juliet, who is played by a Black woman, takes center stage. Additionally, the play includes queer love stories and features a new character May, who is Juliet’s non-binary friend played by a non-binary performer. May discusses challenges they face such as gendered words and bathrooms and performs Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” and Britney Spears’ “Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman.” Through diversifying the cast and twisting the plot, a broader audience gains the ability to connect and relate to the reinvented love story.
By experimenting between high and low culture, the playwrights of & Juliet transformed the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet into a satirical and campy musical. In her piece on “Camp”, Sontag (1964) writes, “Camp and tragedy are antitheses….The whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious…Camp proposes a comic vision of the world” (p. 10). While Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, & Juliet eliminates the tragic suicide scene and instead incorporates witty humor set to a pop music soundtrack, transforming the show into a hilarious musical comedy. Sontag also defines Camp as extravagant, extraordinary, and exaggerated (Sontag, 1964, p. 7). & Juliet is campy as the set design is outrageous and gaudy and the production features elaborate, embellished, and voluminous costumes, which combine modern and renaissance elements. While Romeo and Juliet is typically characterized by its tragedy and seriousness, & Juliet repackages the Shakespeare classic into a campy musical in order to entertain a mass audience.
Though Shakespeare left Juliet dead in his original masterpiece, centuries later, Juliet is reborn in & Juliet as a feminist icon amongst a diverse cast, who belts pop music anthems for a wide audience to consume and enjoy.
Works Cited
Schudson, M. (1987). The new validation of popular culture. J. Storey (Ed.) Cultural theory and popular culture. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. 495-503.
Sontag, S. (1964). Notes on camp. 1-13.
Storey, J. (2009). What is popular culture? Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, 1-16.
Zeisler, A. (2008). Feminism and pop culture. New York, NY: Seal Press. 1-21.
I really love your description of & Juliet as it was one of my favorite shows when I saw it on the West End in London. I appreciated your description of the transformation of the high culture play of Romeo and Juliet into & Juliet, a popular culture play. This description reminded me of Michael Schudson’s (1987) discussion of hierarchies of taste in his piece “The New Validation of Popular Culture: Sense and Sentimentality in Academia.” In this essay, Schudson (1987) explains how universities create canons of authors, like Shakespeare, that they assign year after year, and implicitly place high value on (p. 530). This therefore places Shakespeare’s works on a pedestal as high culture, and everything else is low culture in contrast. This opposition between high and low culture can be seen in & Juliet, as the high culture Shakespeare play is being turned into a popular culture musical, filled with pop songs and dancing.
ReplyDeleteI also love how you brought in the idea’s from Susan Sontag’s (1964) essay “Notes on Camp.” Plays such as & Juliet, that satirically test the boundaries between high and low culture, definitely have a campiness, as they attempt to “dethrone the serious” (Sontag, 1964, p. 10). As you explain, & Juliet disregards some of the intense scenes of the original Romeo and Juliet. The removal of these scenes, along with the general elaborate production of the show, makes it more appropriate for a mass, popular audience. Sontag (1964) also explains how an audience can gain a lot from enjoying many different types of culture. She states that “high culture has no monopoly upon refinement,” (Sontag, 1964, p. 13) and that there can be “a good taste of bad taste” (Sontag, 1964, p. 13). The comedic and extravagant combination of low and high culture enables the audience to not take these distinctions so seriously. Sontag (1964) explains that one can find pleasure in objects that are not considered such high brow. They can even enjoy plays, like & Juliet, that are popular, or “gaudy, outrageous, and embellished,” as you describe them.
Overall, this is a lovely piece of work. I enjoyed reading a critical analysis of & Juliet that transforms a classic Shakespearean play that many people know and love.
Lauren Pantzer
Hi Sophie,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your piece about the film & Juliet discussing a new feminist take on such a classic Shakespeare tragedy and the incorporation of bridging the gap between high and low culture. Your entire piece was very engaging. I especially liked how you incorporated the analysis of the inclusion of pop music to emphasize the accessibility that the film now has to mainstream culture.
I have yet to see the film, but your writing was very encapsulating, and it made me think of the Sarah Banet-Weiser piece we recently read, titled: "Popular Misogyny" (2015). It brought the concepts of commodity fetishism and popular feminism to mind as I read your piece and thought about the logic behind the director's decision to take this new approach. In the 21st century and what those might define as the 5th wave of feminism, it is apparent that the inclusion of feminism in popular culture and media is used more as an economic strategy and gain rather than reflecting the actual values and ideology of the original movement. Your analysis of Juliet's "subverts from the patriarchal narrative" is correct. However, simply the premise of this "feminist" plot with more aspects of inclusivity seems to be a little superficial. It simplifies the message of feminism to be digestible and profitable as Banet-Weiser defines this concept through the term commodity fetishism: "a celebrity endorsing feminism in terms of whether they are one or are not one often ends up commodifying and reifying feminism so that feminism becomes sort of a product [...]".
This also connects to your first point of making the story more accessible and popular. It made me think of how feminism is portrayed in media to be relayed to a mass audience.
Lastly, I liked how you connected the concept of Sontag's Camp. It made me think about your topic in a whole new light.
You did a great job, and I enjoyed reading your work!
Alex Sinins
I haven’t seen or heard of "& Juliet," but you have really captured my interest in this post. I particularly admire your understanding of the production as a feminist narrative relating back to Zeisler’s article on "Feminism and Pop Culture".
ReplyDeleteI think & Juliet could also fall under the lens of Nussbaum’s "TV Reckoning with #metoo." In her article, Nussbaum assesses the implications of taking a predominately male show like BoJack Horseman and deriving a female spin-off from the original source material. Both shows deal with real issues and exhibit similar animation styles, but their characters remain separate. I would think "& Juliet" and Romeo and Juliet function the same way. Even, Nussbaum’s description of these #metoo style productions fits in line with your description of "& Juliet": “These plots are not so much about individuals as they are about the systems around them, and the troubling sensation of recognizing a bad pattern by seeing that you are part of it.” (Nussbaum 2019)
What does not fall in line with Nussbaum’s description is "& Juliet’s" complete genre change. BoJack Horseman may involve more discussions of depression than Tuca and Bertie, but the two are closely intertwined. Though it is outside of Nussbaum’s focus, I personally think the genre change from tragedy to comedy can be attributed to the large time gap between Shakespeare’s original work and the spin-off. The comedy probably adds a sense of timeliness and pop culture appeal to "& Juliet." I am honestly surprised that it took the #metoo movement for Shakespeare’s work to be popularly feminized. Nevertheless, I appreciate your introduction to this source material!
Commenter: CH Henry
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Sophie! I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I had never heard of “& Juliet” before reading your piece, so it was fun to learn about its similarities and differences with “Romeo and Juliet” as well as how it integrates modern music and contemporary feminism into its storyline.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading your blog post, I began to wonder if “& Juliet” could be considered a fan fiction. Henry Jenkins says that creating fan fictions is an act of “rejecting aesthetic distance, fans passionately embrace favored texts and attempt to integrate media representations within their own social experience” (Jenkins, p. 86). This musical was created based on the fantasy and imagination of two Shakespeare fans. Their work unapologetically embraces the high culture of “Romeo and Juliet.” Not only does it retain many of the original characters, but also the exercise of re-writing Juliet’s narrative requires a complex understanding of the original story. Simultaneously, the musical pushes against the exclusivity of high culture by adapting a Shakespeare play for a general audience, integrating elements of modern pop culture. The actors don a modern wardrobe and speak in accessible language, thereby broadening the number of people who can take part in the cultural experience of watching this high culture adaptation.
Often, society claims that the original text is superior to whatever fan fiction adaptations come after it. However, I would argue that “& Juliet” pushes against this narrative, demonstrating that fan fictions can add tremendous value and perspective to a revered work of literature. Jenkins says that fan fiction writers “frequently express dissatisfaction with women’s characterizations” (Jenkins, p. 93). While in this quote Jenkins was talking about Star Trek, I would argue that this concept extends to “Romeo and Juliet” as well. Juliet is depicted largely as helpless and overly romantic in the original play, something that women in modern society have expressed concern about. “& Juliet” is an opportunity to re-write a sexist narrative by re-examining Juliet in a more complex way. The focus on Juliet as the main character creating her own future builds a version of the original story that gives women more agency.
- Anusha Mathur
Jenkins III, H. (1988). Star Trek rerun, reread, rewritten: Fan writing as textual poaching Download Star Trek rerun, reread, rewritten: Fan writing as textual poaching. Critical studies in Media communication.
I found your comparison of Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet" and the 2019 "& Juliet" musical to be a thought-provoking example of how something from “high” culture can be transformed into popular culture — but more specifically, what about an artifact must change in order for this transition to take place. Rather than pinpointing an innate element of the artwork itself, Michael Schudson argues that “the quality of art lies in how it is received,” which you cited. Even without having seen the musical, I therefore agree with you that incorporating pop music, advancing a feminist narrative, and featuring a more diverse character list (and cast) are three strategies that must have impacted the traditional reception of "Romeo and Juliet" and thus subverted “high” culture.
ReplyDeleteStill, further examining these works in the context of Henry Jenkins III’s “Star Trek rerun, reread, rewritten: Fan writing as textual poaching” adds one more dimension to our analysis. Jenkins defines a fandom as “a vehicle for marginalized subcultural groups … to pry open space for their cultural concerns within dominant representations” (87). In other words, fans rewrite a text “in order to make it more responsive to their needs” (87). This aligns with your observation about "& Juliet" boasting increased numbers of women, people of color, and non-heterosexual relationships: groups that had almost entirely been ignored or looked down on during Shakespeare’s time can now demand positive representation in a rewrite of his story. We know that "& Juliet" was intentionally created to take a play with very conventional gender, race, and sexuality norms and re-think its entire premise (while maintaining similar characters, background information, etc.). In doing so, the musical fosters a space for fans of "Romeo and Juliet" to connect with each other and to think critically about the messaging in the original text. Furthermore, I argue that introducing a feminist narrative — a “feminine response to mass media texts,” as Jenkins argues about fan fiction — also attracts a community who would have otherwise not been interested in engaging with "Romeo and Juliet" in the first place (90). By creating a version that is more inclusive, fans (who may not actually enjoy the original text) can feel seen in the fan fiction, truly transforming which new people are (indirectly) interacting with Shakespeare’s work and how.
Jenkins III, H. (1988). Star Trek rerun, reread, rewritten: Fan writing as textual poaching Download Star Trek rerun, reread, rewritten: Fan writing as textual poaching. Critical studies in Media communication.
- Anna Vazhaeparambil
Hi Sophie,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog post on & Juliet! I had never heard of this musical before, but your writing certainly brings it to life. I find it really interesting how you consider & Juliet both as an entity in itself (a remake of a Shakespearean play) and as an ode to feminism; your use of Schudson and Storey helps define the musical in opposition to high culture, while your use of Zeisler and Sontag clearly examines specific content.
This post makes me think about if & Juliet might be considered fan fiction, particularly regarding Jenkins’ perspective. Jenkins focuses on women’s role in fan fiction and how they have historically been excluded from traditional literary production (Jenkins, 1988, pg. 90). Women tend to be more respected in the fan-fic community, where they may develop professional skills and explore their creativity. & Juliet seems to hit these markers! Its diverse cast and rewritten storylines, from Anne Hathaway taking initiative to queer representation, re-empower more women. Instead of Juliet giving up at the sight of her deceased beloved, she learns to reject challenges at their face value. (Sidenote: I do wonder if & Juliet’s “campiness” delegitimizes these themes in some way…)
Jenkins also examines fan fiction in reference to poaching. Poaching is the idea that “fans reclaim works that others regard as worthless and trash” (Jenkins, 1988, p. 86). I am not so sure that & Juliet would qualify as fan fiction in this regard. On the one hand, Shakespeare’s plays were not always considered high culture. On the other hand, Shakespeare’s plays are considered high culture and a worthy object of study now. Although I do not have a precise answer, I appreciate how your blog post has made me think more critically!
-Grace Rhatigan