Every generation has its own Romeo and Juliet. For many, it was the (now controversial) 1968 Franco Zeffirelli adaptation, with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey in sumptuous Danilo Donati–designed period costumes. For me, it was Baz Luhrmann’s radical recasting of fair Verona as a beachside gangland, with a doe-eyed Leonardo DiCaprio staring moodily out at the sunset to Radiohead’s “Talk Show Host,” and Claire Danes perched on her balcony in angel wings. Earlier this year, a buzzy, Tom Holland–fronted version opened in London, directed by Jamie Lloyd.
“When I set out to do my own productions of Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet wasn’t one I wanted to start with, because of just how incredibly famous it is,” Gold tells me from Manhattan, where he’s headed into auditions to assemble the rest of the cast. “Romeo and Juliet has been done on Broadway 36 times, whereas An Enemy of the People has maybe been done twice,” he says, referring to his recent staging of Henrik Ibsen’s classic, which earned its lead, Jeremy Strong, a Tony. “It’s a very different thing.”
Rehearsals won’t begin in earnest until weeks after we speak, but Gold’s vision for the show is already starting to coalesce, with Connor and Zegler at the forefront of his mind. “There’s not a lot of people at that age that can do what I’m asking, to carry really challenging parts eight times a week, in the round, on Broadway,” he says. “It’s a big ask.” Yet Gold is keen for the troupe of actors he’s currently gathering—many of whom will play multiple roles—to have a hand in shaping the production’s final form. “That’s the thing that excites me most: putting an ensemble together, and approaching the most third-rail, most dangerous, most heartbreaking, most challenging parts of human experience together.”
Gold’s main coconspirator on the project—along with choreographer Sonya Tayeh, best known for her Tony-winning work on Moulin Rouge! The Musical—is the maverick pop producer Antonoff. “He was the first collaborator I thought of when deciding to do the play, and he’s sort of like a North Star for me for the whole production,” says Gold. Although Antonoff has done film soundtracks before, this marks his first time composing for Broadway, and he’s adjusted his processes accordingly, relying heavily on voice notes of dialogue from Zegler and Connor. “Those recordings have become my bible,” he says. Antonoff won’t specify what the finished music might sound like, but in keeping with the spirit of the production, he is looking to achieve “something classic that’s been kind of twisted a little bit.”
