Romeo & Juliet - Duke of York's Theatre

Unfortunately I found this to be very poor. If I hadn't seen Sunset then perhaps I'd have found the camerawork a bit more fresh and innovative - but, unlike with Sunset, it seemed to serve no real purpose in this and felt like a gimmick. The same goes for the rest of the direction, to be honest.

I'm not entirely sure why Jamie Lloyd directs his actors to speak so, well, flatly and with lack of expression. To get away with that you need to have real confidence and mastery over the text and that was definitely not the case here. As others have said, I'm not convinced any of the actors really 'got' what they were saying. Tom Holland in particular seemed to be quite out of his depth with the text, and of the rest of the cast Francesca Amewudah-Rivers was probably the strongest.

Incidentally, barring one lone cheer when Tom appeared on stage, it was a surprisingly well-behaved audience. The presence (and glaring eyes) of ATG staff everywhere you turned probably did help!

A generous 2 stars from me. 

Yeah, end of the row restricted view seat. Assuming it was you, thanks. I moved over into your seat when it was clear you weren’t returning and had a better view. 

Press night tonight. Really keen to see what tomorrow morning brings.

More production photos have been released.

I have a ticket booked for this but I'm just not feeling any sense of anticipation somehow. And I loved Cyrano and Sunset.

5 stars Telegraph (pisses self laughing as DC dishes out these like sweets and really can’t be taken seriously after this)

3 stars Guardian

3 stars The Stage

2 stars Independent

2 stars BBC

1 star Express

The Times not yet allocated but reads like 3 stars

And this is what people are paying £200+ for

😅

BBC:
“The star is not to blame, but this production-cum-global-event is 'lifeless'”

Independent:
“Tom Holland’s star-cross’d sad boy lover falls flat”

Express:
“Jamie Lloyd's new production with Tom Holland is absolute drivel”

Variety:
“Tom Holland-Led Production Is Hobbled by Director Jamie Lloyd’s Extreme Stylization. Ninety per cent of the play is written in verse but here the rhythm of the lines is completely broken by pauses in which energy and sense are drained away, and meaning is lost. Likewise, the exuberance of love and youth is entirely missing. One of the biggest victims of this is an undercast Mercutio (Joshua-Alexander Williams), whose character is entirely robbed of impulsive dynamism — meaning his famous, long speech goes for nothing.”

I pity those who see this and think it’s Shakespeare

For most of the audience I bet it will be their only experience of the playwright

Dark times

I grew up next to the RSC

This is hands down the worst staging of a Shakespeare play I have ever seen

Butchered and meddled with

And it’s the worst R&J even worse than the appalling Lily James one

You have missed nothing

I think Jamie Lloyd should keep the stripped back approach but drop the cameras and handheld microphones unless it's necessary for the production. 

He probably won’t care about these reviews- so may continue with his usual tricks, but as a few reviewers said- it’s all become a bit clichéd and predictable now. He’d be wise to switch it up.

So now Tom Holland has to limp through this dud until August. Bet his team are in crisis talks. What’s the betting he’ll do a Taron Egerton style bail-out?

He’s the current Spider-Man, having starred in 6 (I think? Or 7?) big superhero movies. This should have been his triumphant return to the West End having started as a stage Billy Elliott.

Fanbase skewed more towards young(ish) moviegoers rather than your typical theatre crowd.

I meant from the critical reaction perspective.