Hearing Shakespeare’s most beloved piece of work and Jack Antonoff in the same sentence feels like a cultural juxtaposition –– but it’s something that’s becoming a reality very soon.
The latest adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet on Broadway is set to star Kit Connor (Netflix’s Heartstopper) and Rachel Zegler (Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Hunger Games: The Ballad of Snakes & Songbirds), and will feature music by multi-Grammy winner Jack Antonoff, and choreography by Tony-Award winner Sonya Taneh. The musical will be directed by Sam Gold and is set to be a modern-day adaptation of the beloved doomed romance tale –– and promises to cater to the TikTok generation with its edgy tagline that states “the youth are f**ked.”
Full details of the plot to the modern-day adaptation released so far state: “The youth are f**ked. Left to their own devices in their parents’ world of violent ends, an impulsive pair of star-crossed lovers hurtle towards their inescapable fate. The intoxicating high of passion quickly descends into a brutal chaos that can only end one way.”
Just recently, Antonoff released his fourth studio album Bleachers earlier last March –– and spoke to Billboard Philippines about the conceptualization of the record. The celebrated hitmaker stated; “On this album, I felt really, really terrified to enter a new phase of my life and also scared that it would mean that I wouldn’t be able to take the people who I’ve lost with me. Which isn’t true [of course], because you can take them with you and still grow. But really, this record is all about overcoming that fear.”
As we anticipate more details of the forthcoming musical, feel free to listen to Jack Antonoff’s latest album Bleachers below: