‘& Juliet’ opens a can of earworms: Bangers and mashups at the Orpheum

A woke and wacky take on Shakespeare’s star-crossed young lovers, “& Juliet” has the delirious feel of a dorm room party game played by English majors on gummies.

Featuring a stack of pop songs by Swedish hitmaker Max Martin woven together with gags by “Schitt’s Creek” scripter David West Read, this jukebox musical, playing at the Orpheum Theatre through July 27, provides goofy summer fun without insulting one’s intelligence.

The proceedings’ loose conceit has the Bard (Corey Mach) bickering with his wife Anne Hathaway (Teal Wicks) as they collaboratively rewrite “Romeo and Juliet” to right historical gender inequity.
Words and meanings
Rather than doubling down on her boo’s suicide, the new and improved Juliet (Rachel Simone Webb, a monster vocal talent) saunters on to more empowered pastures.

So does Lady Shakes, who takes ownership of her authorship, salvages her marriage, and delivers a powerful, pellucid rendition of “That’s The Way It Is” that stands up to the most famous version of the song by Celine Dion.

Wicks (a one-time Broadway Elphaba) gives a performance that goes far beyond the broad strokes and bright colors that would be sufficient to float a lighthearted spectacle like this. She’s a true singing actress, nuancing every syllable of every lyric to fill them with emotional and psychological subtext that, frankly, don’t exist in the original composition.

Paul-Jordan Jansen who plays Lance, a French patriarch, brings a similar gravitas to the overall glossiness, declaiming Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” like a holy writ. Max Martin may be Captain Hook when it comes to crafting sticky sonic environments. But his lyrics, mostly co-written with what the Playbill refers to as “Friends,” are hardly Shakespeare.

From “That’s the Way It Is” and the similarly unspecific “I Want It That Way” (originally by the Backstreet Boys), to the one-dimensional sentiments of “Stronger” (Britney Spears) and “Whataya Want from Me” (Adam Lambert) the words are purposefully imprecise; blank screens awaiting pop fans’ impassioned projections. The sharp theatrical wit of Cole Porter is nowhere to be found in these songs; but with lyrics that can point anywhere, anything goes.

The playfulness is the thing
So, we watch the befuddled folk of Verona curlicue through new scenarios with what feels like the “Yes! And…” spirit of improv. It’s actually exquisitely timed comedy, albeit often of the Dad joke school, directed with a pinpoint touch by Luke Sheppard.

West Read’s script has the action jumping to Paris, Juliet’s nurse rekindling an old flame, Shakespeare throwing Elizabethan conniptions; and a dimwitted twink rising from the dead to a tune made famous by Jon Bon Jovi. And it’s all bon! All jovial!

Even when attempts to align story and song get as twisted as the show’s titular ampersand, there’s cornball pleasure to the pained effort: Britney Spears’ hit, “Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” is repurposed as an anthem for a male-born non-binary teenager who’s embracing his feminine side. This is strenuous silliness.

The production’s technical aspects are superb across the board. A lush jewel-tone color palette is carried across Soutra Gilmour’s scenic design, Howard Hudson’s lighting and Paloma Young’s truly funny finery which mixes Elizabethan ruffled collars, tunics, and corsets with blue jeans, capri pants, sneaks, and sweatsuits.

This critic doesn’t recall ever specifically noting a show’s make-up before, but Simone Webb’s already mesmerizing performance of “Since You’ve Been Gone” was made all the more so by J. Jared Janas’ gleaming brown lip treatment. Even as the words she sang evaporated into nothingness, I couldn’t keep my eyes off her face.

‘& Juliet’ through July 27. $58-$189. Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St.
http://www.broadwaysf.com