Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom has made his broadway debut as Romeo in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
According to the show’s decription, this is first Broadway staging in 36 years, of this revival of Romeo and Juliet, “moving the setting to contemporary times in which the warring Montague and Capulet families are of different ethnicities.”
The Pirates of the Caribbean actor has been praised for a “first-rate Broadway debut”, however the production itself has been getting mixed reviews from critics.
According to New York Daily News, the modern take on Shakespeare’s play “packs Hollywood star power but lacks emotional fireworks” with Broadway World calling the show “gimmicky.”
Co-stars Rashad and Bloom
Bloom stars opposite actress Condola Rashad who plays Juliet but The Daily Telegraph remarked that their onstage relationship “lacks the spark that would make the tragedy of their situation really blaze”.
It was their questionable chemistry that divided critics in the crowd.
David Rooney of the Hollywood Reporter wrote that the interracial casting “seems more like window-dressing than evidence of a dramatically cohesive textual analysis.”
Rasahd’s performance “is all surface sweetness and vulnerability, lacking the innate pluck or intelligence that this contemporary reading demands.”
Sounds like a mixed bag of performances! More information on the show can be found here.
