Betsy Wolfe Takes PEOPLE Inside Opening Night of Broadway's & Juliet — See the Exclusive Photos!
Jenny Anderson
Betsy Wolfe is coming back to Broadway in style!
After back-to-back Broadway and Off-Broadway shows before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the Great White Way, Wolfe, 40, returns to the New York stage in & Juliet, the new pop musical that flips Shakespeare on its head by way of a pop score of radio hits by songwriter Max Martin.
In exclusive photos for PEOPLE, Wolfe takes us behind the scenes as she prepares for the star-studded event on Thursday night that was attended by Chris Martin, Simon Cowell, JC Chasez, Annie Murphy, Julianne Hough, Lea DeLaria, Cody Rigsby, Meena Harris and more.
And her style certainly came to slay. Wolfe wore a heavily embellished gunmetal metallic gown covered in iridescent paillettes and beading from Cucculelli Shaheen's evening wear collection 13. The design — which took 2,327 hours to create thanks to the intricate hand embroidery — featured side cut-outs and flute skirt, lined in layers of silk chiffon and silk georgette. Wolfe paired the look with matching gloves, Jessica Rich Collection heels and Versani NY jewelry.
Jenny Anderson
Wolfe teamed with leading Broadway stylist Greg Dassonville, founder of DassonVogue, on the show-stopping look.
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For her glam, she turned to hairstylist Lindsay Block and makeup artist Kat Nejat for a sultry, smoky look that really played up the shimmer in the gown.
Jenny Anderson
"I always love something that's really unexpected," she told PEOPLE of her look.
Ahead of opening night, Wolfe explained she decided between "three different" opening-night ensembles for the perfect fit that embodied the Shakespearean feel of & Juliet infused by the pop sensibilities of today.
"I'm not playing around!" she joked, noting that she even transformed her dressing room at Broadway's Stephen Sondheim Theatre to encapsulate the feel of the show.
"I have the coolest dressing room in the history of dressing rooms," she said. "It looks insane. People walk in, [and] they're like, 'What is this?!' I've literally moved in like we're gonna run for 20 years."
She explained, "I have wallpaper, it's painted black, I have carpet tiles, I have a vintage couch, I have a feather lamp. I mean, it looks like a boudoir. It looks completely transformed. I'm waiting for my pink throne. My pink throne has not yet arrived, but it's coming!"
Jenny Anderson
In & Juliet, Wolfe plays William Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway — "No, not that one," she joked — and gets to sing hit songs like Jessie J's "Domino," Céline Dion's "That's the Way It Is" and the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way," among other pop tunes.
"I first read this script over a year ago," she told PEOPLE. "It was sent to me, and I've never laughed so hard, and I literally looked up, and I said, 'I have to do this show.' "
& Juliet is inspired by William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. However, in this version, Juliet doesn't die at the end. Instead, she gets a second shot at love — on her terms.
Jenny Anderson
Wolfe had her husband Adam Krauthamer as well as some family and friends in the audience, but said she didn't want to know beforehand what pop stars would be in the house for the celebration.
Returning to Broadway for a big opening-night celebration after the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, is not lost on her.
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Jenny Anderson
"To have been away from it, and to have been away from friends, and to not experience that kind of collective joyous feeling together was something that I didn't even know that I missed — not even necessarily being on stage, but just watching others do what they do," she said.
"So to me, [opening night is] just such an insane celebration that we've made it," she added. "And I just think that there's a really, really cool sense of joy that we're now finally here."
& Juliet currently plays at Broadway's Stephen Sondheim Theatre. For more information and tickets, visit AndJulietBroadway.com.
