Ya Sorta Gotta Love “Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves” (or at least Like in a Friend Kinda Way) Off-Broadway by Boomerang – front mezz junkies, Theater News

The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves

By Ross

There is a fair bit of truth to the underlying framing delivered here, that Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend, truly loves Romeo just a little more than just the standard. Now, it is Shakespeare, and although there were no out-right gay characters in his plays (naturally, seeing where and when they were written), there are numerous characters in Shakespeare’s great works that were subtly written as characters with ambiguous sexual tones, for which scholars believe and debate that they were written slyly as characters who might have identified somewhere within the LGBTQ+ community had they had the historical opportunity and acceptance to do so. Mercutio is one of those characters that definitely fits in that scholarly box.

He loves Romeo and is almost (or really is) truly jealous of Romeo’s somewhat fickle fixation on the fair Rosaline, which quickly shifts to the more problematic Juliet in one effervescent night. Taking on this exciting formulation, playwright Gina Femia (The Violet Sisters) has run smartly forward, crafting together a fascinatingly fun unpacking with her engagingly sweet and poignant Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves, brought to the stage by Boomerang Theatre Company. She holds tight to the revelatory triangulation but plants it solidly and playfully within an all-girls Catholic school, where sexuality is opening up before these young teens’s eyes, and love and friendships sometimes mash up against one another in ways we can’t quite figure out at the time.

“I hate cheerleaders,” is the statement made by the pretty-solidly out Britt, played charmingly by Stacey Raymond (NBC’s “New Amsterdam“), paralleling Romeo’s quick but not long-lasting infatuation with Rosaline. Although in this “queer kinda adaptation” of Romeo and Juliet, Britt’s Rosaline is a summer infatuation with a cheerleader who turns on the sensitive Britt the moment school resumes and the positioning of groups is re-established. Britt tells the cutting story to their penguin best friend, Ellie, played touchingly by Leah Nicole Raymond (ABC’s “What Would You Do?“), along with the unaware line, it’s “so lucky you’re straight.” All this before the auditions for the Catholic School’s production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a play that Britt believes they will be cast as Romeo. Ellie, the wanna-be actor who truly has the talent, really wants to be Juliet, even if it might feel a little weird to Ellie, as it is pretty obvious to everyone inside The Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at ART/NY that Ellie is navigating some pretty strong feelings for the oblivious Britt.

Flashing forward to the first rehearsal of this high school production of probably the most famous tragic love story in existence, Ellie didn’t get the part she wanted. She was cast as Mercutio, and the part of Juliet went to the not-so-organically talented or determined injured cheerleader, Amber, smartly portrayed by Rocky Vega (Rattlestick’s My Lingerie Play). Amber can’t help herself, she knows her voice for ‘cheer’, but as Juliet, she voices the line “a little dead“, at least to the more finely tuned ears of Ellie. The re-framing is smart, and sharply directed by Scott Ebersold (Off-Broadway’s The View UpStairs), who gives the three ample moments of internal exploration that feel authentic and meaningful, especially as the three find themselves developing into a love triangle that remains pretty much unspoken until their lips do what words cannot.

Played out with honest attention to the internal struggle and challenges of coming out, finding yourself, and understanding your feelings of love and friendship, this carefully unpacked adaptation plays gently and comically with its tender heart, on a set designed with determination by Emmett Grosland (PRTT’s Quarter Rican), with lighting by Derek Van Heel (Boomerang’s The Great Divide) and sound by Sam Kaseta (Boomerang’s The Karpovsky Variations). The whole high school engagement thing works, even though the production as a whole could use an influx of funds to elevate it to the level of its true worth. But with what they have at their disposal, including the well-thought-out costuming by Brynne Oster-Bainnson (Smith Street’s Measure for Measure), Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves does find its tenderly felt spirit becoming utterly relatable in the most authentic manner possible.

We’ve all been there, in love with someone who doesn’t know, who loves someone else, who isn’t aware. And if you add into the mix unspoken, unclear sexuality, in our teenage years, the whole thing feels as tragic and heartbreaking as this classic Shakespearean story should. We can relate, especially to Ellie’s searching, all the inquisitive talk of cucumbers, their obsession with defying gravity, and the eternal (hilariously delivered) question about “Which hole?” We feel for these three, as the closemindedness of their school takes away their castle and their expression of self. But what is the most clever thing about this lovingly performed, smartly crafted play, is the closing statements about the future, and all the wonderful complicated glory that awaits those who step forward into the light and try their hardest to understand who they are, to themselves and to their friends.

Boomerang Theatre Company‘s Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves is now playing at The Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at ART/NY until Nov 24th, 2024. For more information and tickets, click here.