Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler Will Star in Romeo+ Juliet on Broadway This Fall

Sam Levy

All the world’s a stage! Hearstopper star Kit Connor and West Side Story actress Rachel Zegler will lead a new stage production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet debuting this fall, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It will mark the Broadway debut for both actors.

The adaptation, stylized Romeo + Juliet, features music by Grammy-winning producer Jack Antonoff, best known for producing many of Taylor Swift’s recent megahits. Though details regarding the production are scant, the update on the play carries the tagline, “The Youth are F**ked,” and, according to THR, “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,” director Sam Gold told THR.

Prior to the announcement, Connor and Ziegler shared complementary posts on Instagram, with Connor posting an “R” and Zegler posting a “J.” Both performers tagged the locations of their posts as Verona, the Italian city where Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy takes place.

She certainly looks the part.

Connor is best known for his Emmy-winning role as queer high schooler Nick Nelson on the tenderhearted Netflix show Heartstopper. In November 2022, Connor came out as bisexual, saying he did so to stop fans from accusing him of “queerbaiting” for playing Nick.

Zegler is best known for her portrayal of Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, for which she won a Golden Globe. Zegler became the subject of right-wing ire after she was cast as Snow White in Disney’s forthcoming live-action adaptation. (Conservatives were enraged that Disney had cast a Latina actor as Snow White, latching onto comments Zegler had made promising an updated take on the passive heroine.)

Kit Connor playing Romeo will make this production one of two currently queering Shakespeare on the Great White Way. Justin David Sullivan continues to star in the nonbinary role May in the Max Martin jukebox musical & Juliet, on Broadway. Sullivan, who is nonbinary, famously withdrew from Tony consideration in 2023 over the award’s gendered categories. Ironically, both winners in the actor and supporting actor categories at that year’s ceremony were nonbinary: J. Harrison Ghee won for their role in Some Like It Hot while Glee alum Alex Newell triumphed for their role in Shucked.

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Originally Appeared on them.