Tom Holland in Romeo & Juliet, review and star rating: ★★★
Hollywood stars do the West End for cache: to show they’re serious actors who can hack the relentlessness of the stage after years in film – but it’s rare for young stars at the height of Tom Holland‘s megafame to tread the boards. The last young actor at his level might have been Daniel Radcliffe back in 2008 when he bared all in Equus midway through his Harry Potter career, but I’ve not seen fandom like this on the London theatre scene: the night I went, half the audience blocked Charing Cross Road to catch a glimpse of Holland as he flew into his car after the show. (It would have been too dangerous for him to stop and sign autographs, the first time I’ve seen crowds like it since I began writing about theatre.) Inside, smartly dressed Gen Z kids were taking selfies with their parents as a thunderous techno prelude played, the stage cloaked in midnight black. This is event theatre, and regardless of what the critics say, Holland’s fans will pour over this excessively emo show whether it’s any good or not.
So, how is he? Engrossing, and able to find a wide range. For Tom Holland, Romeo & Juliet will achieve what he wanted, to show that he is a fine actor who needn’t be hemmed in by Hollywood blockbuster roles in movies like Spider-Man and Avengers. He can dive for emotion and dispense it well; you believe in his soaking wet eyes that his Romeo couldn’t imagine living without Juliet. He’s also a fine storyteller; angsty and compelling, you hang on Romeo’s every word. In his dropped shoulders and cautious gait he delivers his vulnerable, impressionable lead. Newcomer Francesca Amewudah-Rivers matches his energy as Juliet; when they kiss it’s so intense that no-one whoops, they just stare: you could hear everything.
If you came to enjoy Tom Holland, you’ve got what you came for. Elsewhere, this Jamie Lloyd production falters. There’s a weirdly forced intensity to the whole thing, the empty stage bathed in black for the entirety of the show with Lloyd employing his typical audio-visual elements, getting up into characters’ faces with cameras and projecting them on huge screens. I never quite bought that actors being filmed standing around in backstage corridors was inherently interesting, and I still don’t. If there’s a narrative reason to film actors offstage, sure, but with director Jamie Lloyd it often feels like he’s showing off how good his team are at doing live filming segments, when it does nothing for the plot.
There’s a cultish emo glow to the production that I suspect fans will love, but it too often falls into melodrama. A reverberating bass note and other ‘atmospheric’ music plays throughout the entire show, which takes away from the story and distracts, giving the more dramatic scenes a soapy feel. Tonally it often shoots and misses: after the death of Tybalt at the end of act one, Holland is seen running and screaming, covered in blood, but it’s so overproduced that it elicits laughter from the audience, not shock. It’s one of many moments where the direction gives in to style over substance, leaving the characters awkwardly in the lurch, and by act two you struggle to take it seriously. Innovator director Jamie Lloyd – recently behind Nicole Scherzinger’s West End debut in Sunset Boulevard – is at his best with a reimagined death scene. At first it feels anti-climactic but it builds to an intensity and freshness that suits the vibe of this young cast.
It’s no fault of the wider cast, who put in good turns. Michael Balogun’s Friar Laurence fizzes with TV show host energy, Freema Agyeman gets some genuinely funny bits as Nurse, and Daniel Quinn-Toye, who made his professional adult debut as Juliet’s other romantic interest Paris, should have an exciting future. But Jamie Lloyd’s Romeo & Juliet suffers from being too one-note, the intensity too often feeling more like it drags than grips.
Romeo & Juliet plays at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 3 August
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