Romeo and Juliet is about young love that is doomed. Young love is different from mature love and perhaps that’s an important point that needs to be emphasized for young audiences. Last year, a visual remedy in the form of “Rosaline” debuted on Hulu and any tragic form of this tale of star-crossed lovers should be immediately followed with a viewing of “Rosaline.” As my college Shakespeare professor emphasized, Shakespeare is meant to be performed, not just read, and each performance will have a different interpretation. Here are my choices on the star-crossed lovers.
Juliet is 13 (Act I, Scene III). She is two weeks away from her 14th birthday. We don’t know Romeo’s exact age, but according to Britannica, in Shakespeare’s original story, Romeo is 16. If you think you were wiser at 13 or 16, then your mental age has regressed.
If you’re not familiar with the tale, Shakespeare’s play (1594-1596) is set in Verona where the house of Capulet and the house of Montague are sworn enemies. The audience during Shakespeare’s time would be too familiar with such things. The War of the Roses (1455-1487) wasn’t ancient history. The current queen was the product of the questionable and bloody marital practices of Henry VIII (1491-1547) that had set the newly formed Anglican Church against the Catholic Church.
The lovelorn Romeo is pining for Rosaline who has not just rejected him, but reportedly foresworn love. Rosaline is one of the patriarch Capulet’s nieces. Juliet is her cousin. Romeo’s cousin Benvolio and Romeo’s friend Mercutio (a kinsman of Prince Escalus, the ruling prince of Verona) convinces Romeo to attend a party at the Capulet house to cure him of his love for Rosaline. His plan works, but while there Romeo falls in love with Juliet. Romeo and Benvolio are discovered by Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, but Capulet stops him from confronting the Montague.
Romeo happens upon Juliet while wandering in the Capulet orchard, overhearing Juliet and they declare their love for each other. With the help of Friar Laurence, they secretly wed the next day.
Soon after the marriage, Tybalt finds Romeo on the street and challenges him. The resulting scuffle ends with Mercutio dead and Romeo slaying Tybalt. The Prince exiles Romeo. Romeo spends one night with Juliet and they consummate their marriage, an important point, because Capulet then decides to give Juliet to the Count Paris in marriage.
Seeking help, Juliet visits the Friar who gives her a potion that will put her in a coma. The Friar sends a message to Romeo who is to find her in the crypt and flee together. The messenger doesn’t find Romeo and instead, he believes her dead. He visits her crypt, encountering Paris. They duel and Romeo kills Paris. Believing Juliet is dead, he commits suicide by drinking poison. Juliet awakens to find Romeo dead and then kills herself with Romeo’s dagger.
Friar Laurence reveals the truth and the families are reconciled, agreeing to end their feud. The play ends with the Prince giving an elegy: “For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
Romeo and Juliet
For an interpretation that attempts to stay true to the time, or at least the time as we often imagine it on stage, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 “Romeo and Juliet” embraces the beautiful pageantry of Renaissance Verona and is filled with young dashing energetic men (Michael York as Tybalt and John McEnery as Mercutio) with two young and beautiful leads: Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey. What’s unfortunate is the nudity of the then 15-year-old Hussey and the 18-year-old Whiting. I’ve no doubt that Zeffirelli took advantage of both Hussey and Whiting on the question of nudity. You can see from the poster that this was a selling point. Yet too often on stage, the Romeo and Juliet appear too old to capture the vulnerability of youth. Here the vulnerability is all too real.
West Side Story
The 1961 film was groundbreaking and won ten Academy Awards including Best Picture. This version has the virtual absence of parents. Instead of houses, there are two gangs: The Jets and the Sharks. The Jets are Polish American. Romeo becomes Tony (Richard Beymer, with Jimmy Bryant as his singing voice), a former Jet who has a job working in Doc’s (Ned Glass) drugstore/soda fountain. Tony’s best friend is the current Jet leader, Riff (Russ Tamblyn with Tucker Smith as his singing voice).
The Sharks are Puerto Rican. Led by Bernardo (George Chakiris), the Sharks are the newcomers. Juliet becomes Bernardo’s sister, Maria (Natalie Wood), and Bernardo’s girlfriend is Anita (Rita Moreno).
Instead of a prince, the authority figure is the police, including a racist police lieutenant, Schrank (Simon Oakland), and Sergeant Krupke (William Bramley).
Rita Moreno as Anita was the first Latina actress to ever win an Oscar.
While this troubled production (directed by both Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins) is beautiful, the Puerto Ricans were not all Latino and there was some brown-face.
The 2021 version directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Tony Kushner corrects the diversity problem, but also some of the changes present other problems. Although set in the 1950s, Anita and Bernardo are represented as unmarried and living together. Maria and Tony do not marry, but have a pretend marriage.
There was criticism from the Latino community raised. Instead of Kushner and Spielberg, perhaps a Latino or Latina director and screenwriter could give a more authentic version.
Both versions are still a must-see for fans of musicals and dance. My full review of the 2021 West Side Story: The Weary Warrior and Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’
William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
This 1996 version was directed, produced and co-written (Craig Pearce) by Baz Luhrmann and starred Leonardo DiCaprio (two years before the 1997 “Titanic”) and Claire Danes as the two teens, who were 22 and 17, respectively. This is set in Verona Beach during more current times with drugs (ecstasy) and guns. The 14-year-old Natalie Portman has originally been cast, but studio executives at 20th Century Fox felt she looked too young and her romantic scenes with DiCaprio has felt sleazy
Why this is a cinematic gem? I loved John Leguizamo as Tybalt and Miriam Margolyes as Juliet’s nanny. A pre-Antman Paul Rudd is Dave Paris, and a pre-Lost Harold Perrineau is Mercutio.
There is a problem with Luhrmann’s excessiveness, where he sometimes doesn’t trust the audience to get the message, but this is a dynamic, modern take filmed in Mexico City that brings religion and violence to the forefront.
Matthew Bourne’s Romeo + Juliet
This is a movie of a stage production which takes the Prokofiev music and sets the scene in a mental hospital, Verona Institute. This is production is about madness in many forms. The violence is there in the form of sexual assault and institutionalized brutality as well as parental negligence. From a 2019 performance. For my full review, see “Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet: Madness in Many Forms.”
Romeo and Juliet as Romantic Comedy: ‘Gnome & Juliet’ and ‘Rosaline’
I usually hate tragedies re-written to have a happy ending like the 1996 Walt Disney animated feature “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” or the more popular “The Little Mermaid” in either its 1989 animated version or the 2023 live-action version. Tragedy is a part of life and children will experience it. However, there are two romantic comedies about about Romeo and Juliet that I do love: “Gnomeo & Juliet” and “Rosaline.” I dislike garden gnomes unless they are being eaten by zombies or dinosaurs and was not expecting much when I dragged my husband to a press screening of the 2011 animated romantic musical comedy about two garden gnomes from feuding families.
The film “Gnomeo & Juliet” is about two gnome families in neighboring yards, one belonging to Miss Montague (Julie Walters) and the other to Mr. Capulet (Richard Wilson). The gnomes and other garden ornaments (most notably the cute stone bunnies and the statue of the Bard himself) come to life when humans are out-of-sight. Gnomeo (voiced by James McAvoy), Lady Bluebury’s (Maggie Smith) son falls in love with Juliet (Emily Blunt), Lord Redbrick’s (Michael Caine) daughter.
The film heavily uses Elton John on the soundtrack and features a duet of John and Lady Gaga (“Hello, Hello”). We came away laughing and in love with moss-covered stone bunnies. 
Just this week, I listened to Bernie Taupin in a PBS panel discussion about his partnership with Elton John. Elton John and Lupin will be awarded the US Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song (20 March 2024). Together my husband and I were at the PBS private presentation of Charlie Puth who began his set with some Elton John and Taupin.
Rosaline
For everyone who has managed to survive their teens and their first loves, “Rosaline” reminds us that there is nothing practical about the romance between Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. At least in “West Side Story,” both Maria (Juliet) and Tony (Romeo) have work skills. How would Romeo even begin to support Juliet without his family? We don’t have to worry about that because they both die.
Surely thousands of high school teachers have spent endless hours futilely trying to explain the rashness of Romeo and Juliet, but now, the film “Rosaline,” directed by Karen Maine with a screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (“500 Days of Summer”), gives us an entertaining exposé.
In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Rosaline is to Romeo, “The all-seeing sun, ne’er saw her match since first the world begun,” before Romeo sets eyes on Juliet. In the 2022 film, “Rosaline” we learn that Rosaline (Kaitlyn Dever) isn’t so cold toward Romeo’s (Kyle Allen) attentions.
When Rosaline realizes that Romeo’s attentions are diverted elsewhere, she’s initially miffed and enlists Dario Penza (Sean Teale) to get the other couple apart. Yet she then has a change of heart and teams with Dario to help Romeo and Juliet escape together. The film aptly explains why Rosaline and Dario are better prepared for a life together than Romeo and Juliet (Isabela Merced). There are still lovely lets and gorgeous costumes for everyone who loves that part of Shakespeare.
Only “Rosaline” and “Gnomeo & Juliet” are appropriate for children.
Age of the Geek 