Romeo and Juliet Reviews
Stage Scene LA- Highly Recommended
"...Casting real-life highschoolers as the world’s most iconic pair of lovestruck teens is just one reason Theatricum Botanicum’s Romeo And Juliet feels fresh and new. So is setting the classic tale of doomed adolescent lovers in Gilded Age New York."
Stage Raw- Recommended
"...Geer’s script changes add some contemporary flourishes, referencing such wealthy capitalists as J.D Rockefeller and Jay Gould as invited guests at a festive Callahan ball and making cunning swipes at New Jersey (as New Yorkers are wont to do). Curry skillfully balances humor and ire as Mercutio, making ribald jest of Juliet’s Nurse (Geer) yet seething in his dealings with Tybalt. Geer’s Nurse also shines; she’s admiring of Romeo’s good looks – “He’s a corker” she reports to Juliet – but she also describes the Montagues as “radicals and agitators.”"
Larchmont Buzz- Recommended
"...Adapter Ellen Geer and director Willow Geer’s conception of the play takes place in New York City’s “Gilded Age,” rather than Shakespeare’s “fair Verona.” Swapping the Capulets for “Callahans” and the Montagues for “Mulligans,” this production infuses an all-American sense of disparity into the familial feud. As both “Callahan” and “Mulligan” are Irish surnames, the enmity between the two families thus appears to be fueled solely by their gap in wealth."
Mostly Shakespeare- Recommended
"...The new production of Romeo And Juliet at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum relocates Shakespeare's play to New York in the year 1885, a place and time of great division between the rich and poor in this country. It was the so-called Gilded Age, and yet poor immigrant families were crowded into tenements. That also happened to be the year the Statue of Liberty arrived (though the official dedication was not until the following year). And so it is to the streets of New York that the families of the Mulligans (the Montagues of this telling) and the Callahans (the Capulets) take their quarrels. This production was directed by Willow Geer, and stars Asher Hagler and Quinnlyn Scheppner as the pair of star-crossed lovers."