Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler
Sam Levy
Rachel Zegler and Kit Connor will make their Broadway debuts in a new production of Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet this fall.
The production will feature music by Grammy Award winner Jack Antonoff, who is also making his Broadway debut, movement by Sonya Tayeh (Moulin Rouge! The Musical) and direction by Sam Gold. Exact dates and a theater have yet to be announced, but tickets are set to go on sale in May.
While few details have been released about this version of the Shakespeare classic, the production is using the tagline “The Youth Are Fucked” and promises an angrier take on the tale.
“With the presidential election coming up in November, I felt like making a show this fall that celebrates youth and hope, and unleashes the anger young people feel about the world they are inheriting,” said Gold, who is helming this season’s An Enemy of the People.
Meanwhile, in London, Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers are set to star in another production of Romeo & Juliet, directed by Jamie Lloyd. That production runs May 23 through August.
Connor, best known for his role as Nick Nelson in the series Heartstopper, has also appeared as young Elton John in Rocketman and had roles in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Mercy and Little Joe. Connor has several stage credits in London, including starring in Fanny & Alexander at the Old Vic. He is set to lead the mystery-horror film One of Us and star in Ace Entertainment’s film A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow opposite Maia Reficco.
Zegler came to prominence playing Maria in Steven Spielberg’s new adaptation of West Side Story at the age of 17. She starred as Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. She is set to appear as Snow White in Disney’s live-action remake in 2025.
Antonoff recently won his third consecutive Grammy Award for producer of the year and has collaborated with artists such as Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, The 1975, Diana Ross, Lorde, St. Vincent and Florence + The Machine. He also helms the pop rock band Bleachers.
Seaview, which is behind several shows this season including An Enemy of the People, is the lead producer of the play.
