Kit Connor, Rachel Zegler to star in Broadway production of 'Romeo + Juliet'

April 16 (UPI) -- Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler will make their Broadway debuts in a new production of Romeo + Juliet.

Producer Seaview confirmed Tuesday that Connor and Zegler will star in the modern-day adaptation of the William Shakespeare play.

Connor and Zegler had teased the news Monday with joint posts featuring the initials "R + J." The pair tagged the location as Verona, the city in Italy where Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet takes place.

Romeo + Juliet is directed by Sam Gold, with music by Jack Antonoff and movement by Sonya Tayeh.

The production will open on Broadway in the fall, with the theater, dates, design team and additional casting to be announced at a later date. Tickets will go on sale in May.

"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," Gold said in a statement.

Connor is best known for playing Nick Nelson on the Netflix series Heartstopper, while Zegler starred in the 2021 remake of West Side Story and the Hunger Games prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.