Theater: “& Juliet” at the Sondheim Theater

Okay. So you’ve got folks coming in from out of town. The guy’s a Shakespeare buff and won’t settle for anything less than the perfect “Troilus and Cressida.” But he’s got teenage daughters who paid a fortune for Taylor Swift tickets. Then there’s Uncle Adam, who wants a Broadway musical with Vegas razzle-dazzle.

Or maybe it’s just YOU who wants a play with all of the above. And it’s gotta be funny of course. Well, as someone once said, the play’s the thing. And have we got a play for you: “& Juliet” at the Sondheim Theater.

Notice something missing from the title? Good eye. This whacked-out, very clever musical posits what would happen if Shakespeare’s Romeo were removed from the picture, if Juliet didn’t die, and if she and her friends took off for Paris instead.  Why the change? Shakespeare (played by Stark Sands from “Kinky Boots”) is forced into it by his wife Anne Hathaway (the fabulous Betsy Wolfe) who wants a rewrite with a happier, more girl-boss ending.

So where’s the music in this musical come from? Every top-20 pop song you’ve heard in the last 30 years—hits by Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi, Pink, Kelly Clarkson, and of course Taylor Swift. This is what they used to call a pastiche—taking a little bit from this, a little bit from that, and knitting it together seamlessly. Once you get past the absurdity of marrying Shakespeare with pop tunes, you begin to smile. Then laugh. A lot.

When Juliet (Lorna Courtney) arrives in Paris, she and her besties sneak their way into a club where Prince Frankie Du Boy (Brandon Antonio) is playing a song by Demi Lovato on the harpsichord. He and Juliet connect and Frankie thinks he’s in love—that is, until he meets May, a trans (Justin David Sullivan) and he feels the earth move. But Frankie’s not sure about what’s happened. Despondent and lovesick, May sings a tearful “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman.” Trans-cendant.

But wait! Moments later, Frankie’s dad King Lance sings a duet of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” with long-lost-love Angelique (Melanie La Barrie), Juliet’s nurse. Lance is none other than the distinguished Metropolitan Opera baritone Paolo Szot, who demonstrates he can get down, boogie and crack wise with the rest of them.

So where’s the Vegas-y part? Well, how about the show-stopping dance ensembles? The wedding scene complete with a (du) boy band singing “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back.)” The ticker tape that pours doen on the audience. All the world’s a stage apparently, including what falls gently from the ceiling.

Book by David West Read (“Schitt’s Creek”) keeps the puns flowing. The music and lyrics are by Max Martin, who is, according to Playbill, “only second to Lennon and McCarthy with number one U.S singles.” Clearly, “& Juliet” is the stuff dreams are made of. Wait, who said that?