Tony-nominated & Juliet stars Lorna Courtney and Betsy Wolfe performed the show's heartfelt ballad duet "That's The Way It Is" on Good Morning America just 12 days ahead of the 2023 Tony Awards. See the performance in the video above.
Nominated for her performance as Juliet in the Shakespearian pop-jukebox musical, Courtney is up for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical award. Wolfe, starring as Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway, is nominated for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical award.
& Juliet has received a total of nine nominations for Broadway's annual top honors, including the much-anticipated Best Musical award. & Juliet opened its Broadway run at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre November 17, 2022. Packed with a catalog of pop songs, the musical rewrites the lovestruck teenager Juliet's tragic ending in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Rather than committing suicide after Romeo dies, Juliet decides she would much rather stay alive.
Starring alongside Courtney is Tony winner Paulo Szot as Lance, Tony nominee Stark Sands as Shakespeare, Betsy Wolfe as Anne Hathaway, Justin David Sullivan as May, Ben Jackson Walker as Romeo, Philippe Arroyo as Francois, and original U.K. cast member Melanie La Barrie as Nurse.
READ: From Porn Stars to Shakespeare, & Juliet Book Writer David West Read Has Had a Wild Broadway Career
The musical features a book penned by Emmy winner David West Read (Schitt's Creek). With music from Grammy winner Max Martin, the score is filled with familiar pop songs from the last three decades, such as “Since U Been Gone,” “Roar,” “Baby One More Time,” “Larger Than Life,” “That’s The Way It Is,” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling." The musical transferred from the West End via Toronto and has released its original Broadway cast recording.
Luke Sheppard helms the Broadway production, reuniting his full West End creative team including choreographer Jennifer Weber, scenic designer Soutra Gilmour, costume designer Paloma Young, lighting designer Howard Hudson, sound designer Gareth Owen, video and projections designer Andrzej Goulding, and hair designer J. Jared Janas. Bill Sherman serves as musical supervisor, orchestrator, and arranger, with Dominic Fallacaro as music director. Casting is by Stephen Kopel and Carrie Gardner.
LOOK: Meet the Swings of Broadway's & Juliet
The Broadway run follows the musical's sold-out North American premiere at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre, which also featured the Broadway production's principal cast. In the lead-up to its Broadway run, & Juliet released its first single "Roar," originally recorded by Katy Perry, ahead of the original Broadway cast recording's release by Atlantic Records.
Martin also serves as producer alongside Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page, Jenny Petersson, and Martin Dodd, with Eva Price serving as executive producer.
Nominations for the Broadway honors were revealed May 2, with Some Like It Hot becoming the season's most nominated production with 13 nods. The title is one of five shows up for the venerated Best Musical Tony Award, along with & Juliet; Kimberly Akimbo; New York, New York; and Shucked. Up for Best Play are three works that are already Pulitzer winners: Between Riverside and Crazy, Cost of Living, and Fat Ham; along with Ain't No Mo' and Leopoldstadt. See the full list of nominations here.
Originally slated to broadcast on June 11 as a two-part special with the pre-show kicking off on Pluto TV and the main awards ceremony on CBS, due to the current strike by the Writers Guild of America, the details are unclear as to where or how the Tonys will air. But as of May 15, the WGA announced that they would not picket the Tonys, and the show will go on. With June 11 less than two weeks away, further details on what we can expect this year's Tony Awards celebration to look like should be revealed imminently. Playbill will continue reporting as soon as more is known.
