& Juliet (National Tour)

Tonight was the closing performance in Seattle of the national tour of & Juliet, and it opens in Portland on Tuesday. This is my second time seeing the show, as I also saw & Juliet with its original Broadway cast in New York City in June 2023. I liked the show enough I wanted to see it again and take my kids to see it.

One of the fun things about tonight’s show was most of the audience was not familiar with the cast recording, so there was a lot of laughter as each song started and as the audience recognized each hit. Conversely, my audience in June 2023 in New York City knew the cast recording well, so in that audience, we did not have the same surprise reactions as each song started. That was a fun surprise tonight.

With a national tour, you really never know what you are going to get. A few tours are exceptional, like the 2022 Equity tour of Jagged Little Pill, the 2025 Equity tour of Life of Pi, and the Summer 2025 Equity Wicked tour. At the same time, a few tours are disappointments, and most tours are above average and enjoyable. The bad shows (usually) do not go on tour.

In the case of this & Juliet national tour, it is one of the good ones with excellent production quality, a quality set, an appropriate amount of projections that actually add to the show, and an energetic and quality cast, despite their travel grind. It can be rare for a national tour to have this good of sound engineering and this good of a set. As is the case in most tours, the lighting is not memorable in the way it can be on Broadway. The excellent production quality in this tour really added to the experience.

Now jukebox musicals are not for everyone, and if you dislike jukebox musicals, you might not like this one. A jukebox musical uses pre-existing music, in this case pop hits, and creates a story around the songs, whereas in other musicals, original music is created to support the story. Some criticize this story as being too light, but I argue a lighthearted and fun story with great music and acting can be a wonderful time. Not every show needs to be super deep, but this story does indeed hit on important topics. If you do not have an opinion about jukebox musicals, you will likely very much enjoy this show - it’s a good time. There is a reason it is still running on Broadway over two years later, while other (great) shows are closing so quickly in 2025.

& Juliet features as its main characters William Shakespeare, his wife Anne Hathaway, his characters Romeo and Juliet, and several supporting characters, including a nonbinary character named May. Anne challenges her husband to make his female characters stronger and not so weak. What if Juliet does not decide to kill herself and instead just moves on?

The quality of the cast, sound, set, and costumes are all good, and it feels very similar to the Broadway production. One concern in the back of my mind throughout the entire show was I had this concern the show was possibly using tracks instead of a live orchestra. I double checked that this was an equity (union) tour, which requires the music in a musical to be live, as I understand it. Had the rules changed? I looked for the band on stage and could not find them. I had also noticed some choreography and stage movement issues, and I wondered if this was possibly due to track usage. And the orchestra pit had been converted into extra seating. Then during curtain call, the small band finally appeared on stage to take their bows. So rest assured, there is a live band. The choreography issues I mentioned were likely just due to swings and understudies moving around to different roles, since even one principal character being out causes multiple roles to shift (understudy to cover principal, swing to cover understudy, and so on).

My program does not exactly match the cast I saw tonight, so I am not going to comment on any specific actors, as I cannot with 100% certainty pick out which understudies were in my show tonight. I do not want to risk stating the wrong actor’s name, since I do not have tonight’s understudy list. I have been to so many shows recently where they give you an insert disclosing the understudies, that I forgot that at Broadway Across America shows, you typically have to go seek out the understudy board, usually located near the main entrance. I use a different entrance at this venue, so this understudy board was not in my pathway, and my program had no insert disclosing the understudies. I will just say the vocals and acting were excellent across the board, and as already mentioned, this cast had excellent energy and presence.

You can see when the tour is coming to a city near you by visiting https://www.broadway.org/tours/juliet. You can also still catch this show in New York City, but this tour is strong enough that if it is coming to your city, save that precious New York slot, as there are so many incredible shows in New York right now. That said, the reasons for choosing to see this in New York would be smaller venue, better lighting, and usually a superior cast - but this tour cast is excellent.

This is a very fun show to go see; just do not take a theatre friend who hates jukebox musicals. Take your kids as long as you are ok with a few F bombs, as it is a great show for teens and up.

See more show reviews from 2025.