With The Tony-Nominated ‘& Juliet,’ This Canadian ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Writer Has Created A Broadway Musical Well Worth A Flight To New York

There are a lot of great Broadway shows out right now but, to me, & Juliet is easily the best musical of the year. Besides featuring some of the most beloved songs in pop history, it’s filled with so much humor, heart and humanity that I wasn’t surprised to learn that the book was written by David West Read, who also combined those same ingredients so brilliantly in a little TV show he wrote and executive produced, called Schitt’s Creek.

Once I discovered that he was behind both of these favorites of mine, I just had to reach out to discover the back story of how he came up with & Juliet, how he chose the songs and what’s next for him.

If you’re looking for things to do in New York this summer, put & Juliet at the top of that list. It’s simply the best.

First, congrats on the well-deserved Tony nominations. & Juliet is my favorite musical of the season and I hope it wins everything. Can you tell us how the partnership between you and Max Martin came about and why you decided to rewrite Shakespeare rather than create a Mamma Mia-ish story?

Thank you very much for the kind words about & Juliet! This show has been 7 years in the making, so I’ll try to give you the short version…

I was asked by my agent if I wanted to pitch a concept for a Max Martin musical. At the time, I didn’t know who Max was, which is partly because I don’t know things, but also because Max is so Swedish and humble that he’s made a point of staying out of the spotlight. Turns out, Max is one of the most successful songwriters of the last century. He’s written the most #1 hits behind John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and is responsible for decades of sensational pop music that’s celebrated all over the world. He is truly the “Shakespeare of Pop,” and I loved the idea of leaning into that with this show. Many people think of Shakespeare as high-brow or inaccessible, but in his time, he was creating art for the masses. So it made sense to me that, if we were going to reinvent and re-purpose Max’s biggest hits in the context of this musical, we could also create a new version of one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays.

Why Romeo & Juliet? What was it about that specific play that lent itself so well to the songs?

Like all great pop music, Romeo & Juliet is about young love and heartbreak, and the thought of Juliet getting her second chance through the songs of Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande made me smile. Fortunately, one of the reasons Max is so successful is that he’s always looking to challenge himself, and to step outside his comfort zone, so he was on board. I was also told that, if Max wasn’t happy, he could pull the plug at any point. Thankfully, he never did.

Did you know from the beginning which songs you would be including?

I was given a list of about 250 Max Martin songs to choose from. You could easily make 10 musicals out of his catalogue. But for me, I always prioritized songs that helped move the story forward. In order to become the earworms that they are, most pop songs are repetitive by nature, so we had to keep finding ways to create new meaning out of familiar lyrics. And in our workshop process, we tried dozens of other Max Martin songs that weren’t as successful. That’s the best part of creating a jukebox musical: because the songs are already written, you don’t have to feel bad if you decide not to use one. It was years of trial-and-error to arrive at the 30-ish songs that made the final cut.

Were there any songs you really wanted to include that just didn’t fit in?

There’s an Adele song called “Send My Love (to Your New Lover)” that I was desperate to include, mostly because I wanted to meet Adele. And there’s a beautiful P!nk song called “I Don’t Believe You” that we tried as a duet between Shakespeare and Romeo. It was gorgeous, but it didn’t survive, and Oliver Tompsett (who played Shakespeare in the West End) still brings it up, years later.

Song-wise, do you have any personal favorites? Is there one that you especially felt satisfied with after finding a way to fit it in? I got such a kick out of watching people’s faces when they heard the opening notes of a song and realized what it was and how perfectly it worked with a scene from the 16^th century.

It’s hard to pick a favorite! I love sitting in the audience for this show, and hearing those laughs of recognition or surprise as each song drops. Without giving anything away, “It’s Gonna Be Me” (by NSYNC) is essentially a joke with two hours between setup and payoff, and that makes me very happy. I love the Backstreet Boys moment, the Celine Dion moment, the Bon Jovi moment… and when you look at those artists together, you realize just how incredibly diverse Max’s catalogue is. It’s cheesy to say, but this really is a show that brings people of different backgrounds and tastes together, and I think it’s that collective experience — shared laughter, shared music, shared nostalgia — that people are so desperately craving, especially after the last few years. It’s why we need theatre!

One of the things that makes & Juliet special is its inclusivity. You let the characters just be who they are without making a big deal out of it or hitting audiences over the head with a message. It’s what you did so beautifully in Schitt’s Creek, too, and it’s especially important at this time. When Justin David Sullivan sings “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” it could have been jokey but, instead, it’s so moving and a real standout moment. Can you talk about what this inclusivity means to you and how you pull it off so naturally? And, also, can you please teach other writers to do it?!

I was lucky enough to be part of an incredible writers’ room on Schitt’s Creek, and the mantra of that show was that the town we were creating didn’t need to be a real place — it just needed to be a place in which we’d really want to live. Similarly, & Juliet doesn’t really exist in Elizabethan England, or even 2023… it’s more like “Julietland.” It’s a place of greater openness and acceptance, and I hope it’s aspirational in that way, without being preachy or pedantic. For me, the song “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” is a beautiful moment in the show because it’s been carefully created with the artists who have played the role of May, all of whom find truth in a character who is struggling to find their place in a rigidly segregated society. Our mantra on & Juliet was “Dare to be serious.” It’s (we hope) a very funny show, but it’s also asking you to see these characters as three-dimensional human beings, and to care about them, regardless of any pre-conceptions you might have about the songs in their original context. And to do that honestly, and respectfully, requires the input and collaboration of so many people.

Anne is such a fantastic character. Had you known previously that Shakespeare had a wife named Anne Hathaway?! That is just comic gold waiting to be written. Can you share how she worked her way into your story?

I knew that Shakespeare had a wife named Anne Hathaway, but that was pretty much all I knew about her, and that’s pretty much all there is to know about her. There’s so little on record about Anne that she was basically a blank canvas for me as a writer. And even though it’s Juliet’s name on the poster, it really is Anne’s story. In the hands of Betsy Wolfe (who plays Anne on Broadway), she is alternating hilarious and heartbreaking. She is the character the audience immediately identifies with — she just wants a good night out, a good story! But as the show progresses, we realize that she’s also fighting for the survival of her relationship.

How much fun was it coming up with Shakespeare puns and references?

I love puns, and this show (finally) gave me the freedom to go absolutely hog wild with wordplay. That being said, Juliet and her friends attend a ball in Paris, and my original draft had a LOT more jokes about “balls,” so I consider this final version to be relatively restrained.

Did this experience make you want to do more writing for Broadway?

This is my second time on Broadway, after a short-lived comedy about pornstars at an award show called The Performers, exactly 10 years ago. That show opened and closed in 4 days, in the middle of Hurricane Sandy, so this has been a much better outcome. But my dream has always been to balance my TV work with theatre. I have a new musical called In Dreams, based on the music of Roy Orbison, which I’m creating with & Juliet director Luke Sheppard. It opens in the UK this summer, and Toronto this fall, and I think it’s going to be very special.

Anything else you’d like readers to know about the show?

I’ll say this: Broadway is expensive. And it’s an ordeal. And you have to leave your house. But in my experience, no one walks out of & Juliet saying, “Why did I spend money on that?” It’s an absolute banger of a show, and one of the greatest casts you’ll ever see onstage. So just go, Forbes reader. YOU DESERVE THIS!