Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made her Broadway debut in a specially created one-night-only walk-on role in the hit jukebox musical & Juliet December 14 at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.
Watch Jackson—who became the first Black, female Supreme Court justice when she took her seat on the highest court June 30, 2022—rehearse for her Broadway bow and subsequently take the Sondheim stage in the Instagram posting below. About her Broadway appearance, Jackson says, "I think that it means that anything is possible."
Jackson also participated in a talkback following the performance.
In her memoir Lovely One, released in September, Jackson wrote about her love of theatre while applying to Harvard, saying, “I, a Miami girl from a modest background with an unabashed love of theatre, dreamed of one day ascending to the highest court in the land—and I had said so in one of my supplemental application essays. I expressed that I wished to attend Harvard as I believed it might help me 'to fulfill my fantasy of becoming the first Black, female Supreme Court justice to appear on a Broadway stage.'”
With the December 14 cameo appearance in & Juliet, Harvard graduate Jackson fulfilled the second part of that dream.
The current Broadway company of & Juliet includes Maya Boyd as Juliet, Tony winner Paulo Szot as Lance, Alison Luff as Anne, Drew Gehling as Shakespeare, Liam Pearce as Romeo, Michael Iván Carrier as May, Jeannette Bayardelle as Angélique, and Nathan Levy as François.
Gabe Amato, Daniel Assetta, Reese Britts, Nicholas Cooper,
Charli D’Amelio, Jhailyn Paige Farcon, Makai Hernandez, Najah
Hetsberger, Joomin Hwang, Khailah Johnson, Elsa Keefe, Alaina Ví
Maderal, Daniel J. Maldonado, Alejandro MullerDahlberg, Ava Noble,
Cassie Silva, Darien Van Rensalier, and Romy Vuksan complete the cast.
& Juliet, nominated for nine Tony Awards,
including Best Musical, flips the script on the William Shakespeare
classic, imagining what would happen next if Juliet hadn’t ended it all
over Romeo. Featuring a book by David West Read, the score includes a
mix of tunes by Max Martin and more, including “Since U Been Gone,”
“Roar,” “I Want It That Way,” and “Confident.”
The production also has direction by Luke Sheppard, choreography by Jennifer Weber, musical supervision, orchestrations, and arrangements by Bill Sherman, scenic design by Soutra Gilmour, costume design by Paloma Young, lighting design by Howard Hudson, sound design by Gareth Owen, video projection design by Andrzej Goulding, hair, wig, and makeup design by J. Jared Janas, and musical direction and additional orchestrations by Dominic Fallacaro.
U.S. casting is by Stephen Kopel and Carrie Gardner.
The international hit musical, which opened at the Sondheim November 17, 2022, was the first new musical of the 2022–2023 Broadway season to announce its recoupment.
Darien Van Rensalier, Gabe Amato, Charli D'Amelio, Joomin Hwang, Cassie Silva, and Nicholas Cooper in & Juliet
Michael Iván Carrier in & Juliet
Drew Gehling, Alison Luff, and company of & Juliet
Maya Boyd and company of & Juliet
Liam Pearce and company of & Juliet
Alison Luff and Drew Gehling in & Juliet
Maya Boyd and company of & Juliet
