Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Outrage as Zendaya ran with speed quickly into the car without greeting fans as Tom Holland is seen waving to fans outside at night after Romeo and Juliet performance at Duke Of York’s Theatre in London.
Zendaya rushed into the car quickly as Tom Holland thanked his fans outside while leaving Duke of York’s theatre after Romeo and Juliet performanceÂ
Theatre is necessarily a pretty localised art form, so it’s remarkable to see a single production attain the status of a global event. Yet that, undoubtedly, is what a new take on Romeo and Juliet in London’s West End has become, thanks to one of its leads – a certain Spider-Man, Tom Holland. You can feel the effect of Holland’s very special aura of Gen Z mega-celebrity in the particular hubbub in the audience before the play starts, and you can certainly feel it afterwards, in the unprecedented scenes outside the Duke of York’s Theatre, where hundreds of fans teem behind railings, waiting for a glimpse of Holland as he travels from stage door to his car, waving like royalty.
If only the show itself was able to match this energy. Unfortunately, though, it’s a depressingly lifeless affair, which somehow manages to be both overstated and underpowered. This, it should be emphasised, is in no way the fault of the actors – neither Holland, who is fine, nor Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, playing Juliet, who is better than fine, nor the supporting cast. The problem lies firmly with the gimmicky, oppressively dour staging, which consistently works against all of them.
If hardly on Holland levels, director Jamie Lloyd is a box-office draw himself: one of very few “name” theatre makers, who has become known for minimalistic reimaginings of classics featuring dressed-down A-listers. These include recent spins on A Doll’s House, with Jessica Chastain, The Seagull, with Emilia Clarke, and, last autumn, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, with Nicole Scherzinger; the latter, after earning raves in the UK capital, is heading for Broadway in the autumn.