(© Carol Rosegg)
Attention all girls (and boys) who had a Legolas poster hanging over their bed sometime in the last decade: Tonight is a night that you’ll want to be on Broadway. Tonight your fantasy boyfriend Orlando Bloom rides his motorcycle out of your dreams and onto the stage of the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Tonight you will have the distinct pleasure of watching him make out with two-time Tony Award nominee Condola Rashad while wooing her in iambic pentameter. This is the opening night of the first revival of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to play on Broadway in over two decades, and you have only until January 12, 2014, to catch it!
The play tells the timeless tale of two star-crossed lovers in Verona. At a ball thrown by her family, Juliet (Rashad), a young noblewoman of the House of Capulet, falls in love at first sight with the handsome Romeo (Bloom). Who could resist those dreamy eyes, that wavy hair? The only problem is that Romeo is a scion of her family’s sworn enemies, the Montagues. Blood feuds be damned, the two lovers decide to get married the day after the ball in a secret ceremony officiated by Franciscan drug-dealer Friar Laurence (Carver). But will their love be enough to transcend the deep rift between their two houses? Judging by the body count at the end of the play, methinks not.
You can check out the production stills below:
Orlando Bloom is Romeo. (© Carol Rosegg)
Condola Rashad is Juliet. (© Carol Rosegg)
Juliet (Condola Rashad) and Romeo (Orlando Bloom) catch eyes at a rocking party and fall instantly in love. (© Carol Rosegg)
Condola Rashad looks down on her Romeo in the famous balcony scene.(© Carol Rosegg)
Orlando Bloom (Romeo) and Condola Rashad (Juliet) cuddle on the balcony.(© Carol Rosegg)
Condola Rashad’s Juliet swings on a swing as she contemplates her love. (© Carol Rosegg)
More Orlando Bloom. (© Carol Rosegg)
Check back in tomorrow for TheaterMania’s review of Romeo and Juliet as well as photos and video from its opening-night red-carpet event!
