& Juliet

& Juliet is a jukebox musical built as a sequel to Romeo and Juliet, with one big change: Juliet survives. That twist comes from Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife, who shows up at the first performance of her husband's play and talks him into handing over the story. The two then wrestle for control of the plot in front of the audience, while Juliet leaves Verona for Paris and starts making her own choices.

Nearly every song in the show is a pop hit that the Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin wrote or co-wrote. The book is by David West Read, and Luke Sheppard directed.

This is an original musical rather than a revival. It started out in Manchester and London in 2019, stopped in Toronto for a pre-Broadway run in 2022 and opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on November 17, 2022. It received nine Tony Award nominations in 2023, Best Musical among them, and in June 2024 it announced that it had earned back its Broadway investment.

The evening begins on the opening night of Romeo and Juliet, with the company cheering Shakespeare as he greets the house. Anne, in from Stratford-upon-Avon, proposes a different ending in which Juliet lives. Shakespeare is not pleased but lets her steer, and from then on both authors keep stepping into the action to bend it their way.

In Anne's version, Juliet wakes to find Romeo dead, then learns at his funeral that he had a long list of earlier lovers. Her parents decide she belongs in a convent. Instead she escapes with her best friend May, who is non-binary, and her nurse, Angélique. Anne writes herself in as a fourth friend named April and gives Shakespeare a part too: he drives their carriage to Paris.

In Paris the group meets François, a sensitive young musician whose father, Lance du Bois, has told him to either find a wife or enlist in the army. The friends crash his party. May opens up about being non-binary, Juliet and François discover they both have parents who smother them, and Angélique and Lance realize they have a history. A proposal follows, Juliet accepts once her parents arrive, and Anne complains that her husband keeps hurrying Juliet toward marriage. Shakespeare answers with complications of his own, including a kiss between François and May, and the first act closes when Romeo comes back from the dead to claim his bride.

The second act is a contest of wills. Romeo expects Juliet to return to him, and she tells him she is engaged to someone else. The quarrel between the two authors grows so bitter that Anne snaps Shakespeare's quill, leaving nobody able to rewrite what happens next. May is hurt that François still means to marry Juliet, Romeo admits he would like to become a better man, and Anne tells Juliet about her own romance with Shakespeare. Everything heads toward a wedding.

Martin holds the music and lyrics credit, but the score is assembled from existing songs he wrote with other songwriters. The catalog it draws on spans hits first recorded by Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, NSYNC, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd and Justin Timberlake, among others. Only one number, "One More Try", was written for the show. Songs recorded by Adele and Taylor Swift were tried during workshops and later dropped.

The score works by handing familiar radio songs to new characters and new situations. Two numbers splice a pair of hits into one.

A few numbers to listen for:

• "Larger Than Life" is the opener, as Shakespeare and the company welcome the audience.
• "I Want It That Way" carries Anne's pitch for a new ending and Shakespeare's grumbling reply, and it returns as a reprise late in Act Two.
• "...Baby One More Time" is Juliet's first solo, sung as she wakes to find Romeo dead.
• "Overprotected" is a duet in which François and Juliet bond over their families.
• "Teenage Dream / Break Free" is a mash-up for Angélique and Lance, two people with a shared past.
• "One More Try", the only new song, belongs to Juliet, Romeo and the company, as Romeo tells Juliet he wants to change.

What you see is a story being edited live: the two authors interrupt scenes, argue in front of the audience and write themselves into the plot. The stage is lit like a pop concert, with theatrical haze to match.

As of October 2026, the Broadway company is led by Gianna Harris as Juliet, Alison Luff as Anne, Corey Mach as Shakespeare, Cyrus Veyssi as May, Jeannette Bayardelle as Angélique, Spencer Sutherland as Romeo, Anthony Gargiula as François and Paulo Szot as Lance. Joey Fatone of NSYNC plays Lance at select performances. From November 3, 2026, Aly Michalka is scheduled to take over as Anne, in her Broadway debut, and Tichina Arnold as Angélique.

Manchester saw it first: the world premiere was at the Manchester Opera House on September 10, 2019, and that run lasted until October 12. It moved to the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End, beginning previews on November 2, 2019, and opening on November 20. The COVID-19 pandemic halted the London run on March 16, 2020; performances resumed on September 24, 2021, and the West End production closed on March 25, 2023.

A Toronto engagement planned for February 2021 was pushed back by the pandemic and finally began at the Princess of Wales Theatre on June 22, 2022, with an official opening on July 7 and a limited run through August 14. The producers announced the move to Broadway on the day of that Toronto opening.

Broadway previews began at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on October 28, 2022, the same day Atlantic Records released the Original Broadway Cast Recording. The album has 30 tracks: all 29 numbers in show order plus a bonus recording of "Since U Been Gone" billed as Juliet's version. It features the original Broadway principals, among them Lorna Courtney as Juliet, Betsy Wolfe as Anne, Stark Sands as Shakespeare, Justin David Sullivan as May, Melanie La Barrie as Angélique, Ben Jackson Walker as Romeo, Philippe Arroyo as François and Paulo Szot as Lance. The official opening followed on November 17, 2022.

In June 2024 the production announced that it had recouped its Broadway capitalization, the first new musical of the 2022–23 season to do so and the fourth since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The show has also traveled widely. In Australia it opened at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne on March 9, 2023, then moved on to Singapore, Perth and Sydney. A UK and Ireland tour began at the Manchester Opera House on July 8, 2024, and a North American tour launched in Baltimore on September 22, 2024. In Germany it played as & Julia in Hamburg from October 30, 2024, to February 1, 2026, with a move to Stuttgart set for October 2026. A second Toronto staging, cast entirely with Canadian performers, ran at the Royal Alexandra Theatre from December 14, 2025, to August 2, 2026. Swedish and New Zealand productions followed in 2026, and a Dutch one was scheduled to open in October 2026.

On September 10, 2026, the production announced that its Broadway run would end on January 3, 2027, after 1,723 regular performances and 20 previews.