What if the plot shifted and Juliet didn’t kill herself after finding Romeo dead in William Shakespeare’s tragic romantic classic, “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet”?
It would be an entirely different play, wouldn’t it? Different, yet it joins all the other twists, interpretations and versions of the Bard’s plays that have kept tens of thousands of actors, directors, stage designers and dramaturgs busy over the centuries since Shakespeare’s death in 1616.
Teal Wicks, who plays William Shakespeare’s wife in the rollicking Broadway musical “& Juliet”, on tour at the Academy of Music, has her own theory to explain this theatrical phenomenon.
In this coming-of-age musical created by the Emmy Award-winning writer from “Schitt’s Creek” and full of chart-topping past glories, Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway, pushes her husband to pen a different version – one in which Juliet decides to pursue a second chance for happiness instead of killing herself after Romeo’s death.
Different, right? But not surprising.
Wicks believes that Shakespeare’s well-known plot lines, strong characters and themes have become the basis for most of our modern stories and plays.
“They are very rich stories with lots of twists,” she said. ““Because of the fact that people are so familiar with these tales, even if you don’t know the specific characters, you know the story arcs, it feels like a solid foundation to add your own twists and turns. And that is very fun and exciting.”
To demonstrate how life and Shakespeare have come full circle for Wicks, “& Juliet” is not her first production with a twist on a Shakespeare classic. In college, she had a part in a musical version of “Romeo & Juliet” that included Motown songs and Aretha Franklin hits.
“It was very fun,” she said.
However, Wicks’ current show, “& Juliet,” running March 25 through April 6, is more than a twist. It boasts an entirely new plot written by David West Read, a Canadian playwright and the executive producer of “Schitt’s Creek.” It even includes new characters, like Wicks’ Hathaway and the Bard himself.
Shakespeare has been everywhere this season.
In Mt. Airy, the Quintessence Theatre Group staged the controversial and lively “Kiss Me Kate,” a 1948 play within a play complete with gangsters and based on “The Taming of the Shrew.” Now playing there are two very different Shakespeare romances, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Antony & Cleopatra,” in nightly rotation through April 27.
In Center City, the Lantern Theater Co. is extending Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “Much Ado About Nothing,” through March 23.
“They are such epic stories that he created that they have become a framework that we tell through our art,” Wicks said.
If Shakespeare’s plays come with a built-in framework for creative deviation, Wicks’ character, Anne Hathaway, comes with the exact opposite.
“I knew nothing about Anne Hathaway,” Wicks said.
That’s because there’s not much to know.
“There are very little actual facts about her life and only a few instances where she is in any public record. We have a line in our show, how William left his wife their second-best bed,” Wicks said. “That is true. [His will] is one of the few documents that actually talks about their marriage.
“There is so much historical fiction about her. A lot of people have a lot of conjectures and ideas about what their relationship was. I have no idea what the truth is.”
It’s inevitable, Wicks said, that people will become interested in the spouse of a monumental figure like William Shakespeare. But absent concrete biographical information on Anne Hathaway, “she can become a vessel for putting in your thoughts about heterosexual marriage and women’s issues. You can pour it into there and have as many theories as you want.
“What I love about Anne in ‘& Juliet’ is that she is such a fleshed-out role, [yet it] still has enough room for your interpretation and your freedom,” Wicks said.
What Wicks also loves about Anne is that it’s not the leading role. Wicks has been there, done that as Elphaba, the wicked witch, in “Wicked” on Broadway and in various touring companies.
As the lead, “you’re keeping the story going and you are keeping the play moving forward. You’re the one making sure the train stays on the tracks,” she said. It’s physically and mentally exhausting eight shows a week, song after song.
“Anne is integral to the story,” yet she’s not on stage every minute, Wicks said. “I get breaks. I get one big solo and I’m happy for it.”
The audience will probably be happy too with the play list — pun intended — which includes Swedish songwriter-producer Max Martin hits like “Since U Been Gone”, “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” and “Baby One More Time”.
So, what should the audience take from “& Juliet”?
“The lesson of this story that we get to celebrate is having a second chance at life,” Wicks said. “It’s about following your heart and discovering who you are on your own terms.”
FYI
“& Juliet”, presented by Ensemble Arts Philly and The Shubert Organization, March 25 through April 6, Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad St., Philadelphia, 215-893-1999.
“Much Ado About Nothing”, Lantern Theater Co., through March 23, St. Stephen’s Theater, 923 Ludlow St., Phila., 215-829-0395.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Antony & Cleopatra”, in nightly rotation, Quintessence Theatre Group, March 7-April 27, Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave., Phila. 215-987-4450.
