So, saw Romeo & Juliet tonight...

[huzzlewhat]

Had an interesting evening - went to see the filmed production of the recent Broadway production of Romeo & Juliet. I might not fly all the way to New York City and pay $75 to see Orlando Bloom do Shakespeare, but for $20 and a five-minute drive to the movie theater, I'm in

Comments

[viggofest]

Neither Condola or Orlando is a fresh-faced teen. Did their maturity matter?
(And I had no idea Phylicia's daughter was so old!)(Relatively speaking, of course ;-)

[huzzlewhat]

No, not really. Neither one of them would have been cast in a filmed version (originally produced for film, that is), but 20-something is traditional for stage productions; Rashad fits right in, and Bloom can carry it off. Some of the reviewers were bothered by it, some said their age didn't matter, some didn't mention it at all. So it all depends on individual perception.

There's a difference between the way I watch theater and movies/TV; I'm used to seeing older actors playing younger roles on stage, simply because of the demands of a stage production; it becomes one of those things that I expect, so I buy into (willing suspension of disbelief, and all that). Whereas movies are less forgiving of the age thing. Juliet did play as younger than Romeo, but I thought they both convinced in their roles. I did notice that Bloom used a lighter, higher range in his voice during the first half of the play, and let it deepen at and after the turn. Which probably fed into the NY Times reviewer's feeling that he'd watched a Romeo who evolved