The streets of Broadway erupted in celebration as Gen-Z icons Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler took their first bows within the starry revival of Romeo + Juliet.
Director Sam Gold presents a daring new tackle William Shakespeare’s classic in the production, which kicked off its preview performances on Thursday, Sept. 26 on the Circle within the Sq. Theatre forward of a gap on Thursday, Oct. 24. Not solely is the play led by two of Hollywood’s greatest rising stars, however Gold additionally enlisted the assistance of Grammy winner (and longtime Taylor Swift collaborator) Jack Antonoff to introduce unique music to the piece.
With a lot recent power across the Bard’s beloved romantic tragedy, it is no surprise the present’s producer Seaview tried one thing completely different with one other tried-and-true Broadway custom: the stage door autographs.
Slightly than supply the same old line, Romeo + Juliet threw a celebration exterior the theater, with a DJ Amber Valentine actually placing a brand new spin on the expertise and turning their nook of West fiftieth road into an enormous bash.
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Practically 1,000 keen followers from the offered out, standing room solely viewers caught round for the sudden soirée, greeting the solid’s arrival with absolute pandemonium.
PEOPLE has unique pictures from the occasion, snapped by photographer to the celebrities Emilio Madrid.
In accordance with a launch from the present, the cheers for the solid “almost drowned out Elphaba’s legendary ‘Defying Gravity’ warfare cry subsequent door” at Depraved.
“One fan even handed out from the sheer pleasure of seeing Package Connor in individual,” they mentioned.
Zegler “acquired the offered out crowd doing full-out ‘Scorching To Go’ choreography, adopted by half the group chanting ‘Capulet’ and different half chanting ‘Montague’ — a name again to the tragic star crossed lovers on the middle of the play.”
Festivities continued at an unique underground celebration within the subway station at eatery See No Evil Pizza and cocktail bar Nothing Really Matters. There, “Gold toasted the solid on the success of the night,” in accordance with the discharge.
Romeo + Juliet‘s solid is essentially made up of newcomers making their Broadway debuts, together with Connor, 20, and Zegler, 23.
The play’s full firm consists of Gabby Beans (as Mercutio/The Friar), Tommy Dorfman (as The Nurse/Tybalt), Nihar Duvvuri (as Balthazar), Sola Fadiran (as Capulet/Girl Capulet), Daniel Bravo Hernández (as Abraham), Taheen Modak (as Benvolio), Jasai Chase-Owens (as Gregory) and Gían Pérez (as Samson/Paris/Peter).
Understudies Missy Malek, Timothy Oh, Susannah Perkins and Daniel Velez spherical out the solid.
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Romeo + Juliet, which additionally options motion from Tony winner Sonya Tayeh, is presently scheduled for a strictly restricted engagement by Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025.
The work, first printed in 1597, follows the tragic romance of two Italian teenagers from feuding households. It is a story that has been advised on Broadway in almost 40 earlier productions, together with its most up-to-date revival in 2013 that starred Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad.
It was additionally the inspiration for West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s award-winning musical that was most lately tailored right into a 2021 Steven Spielberg movie — coincidentally starring Zegler.
“I’m so thrilled to get to return to my roots and the factor that I really like a lot,” the actress advised Vogue final month, including, “I can’t imagine that is my life.”
Tickets for Romeo + Juliet at the moment are on sale.