Meet the Star of Broadway’s Buzziest New Show ‘& Juliet’
It’s the morning after her Broadway show opened and Lorna Courtney is still reeling.
“I was over the moon,” she swoons. “During the party I heard some of the reviews as they came out and I saw headlines, little snippets, and it made me feel so happy. My heart was overjoyed.”
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With good reason: “& Juliet,” which transferred to Broadway after a successful Toronto run, has earned rave reviews across the board and is one of the fall season’s most talked-about new shows. The story explores what might have happened had Juliet not died in the Shakespeare classic — told with a pop girl spin through the hits of famed songwriter Max Martin.
“So many people have come up to me, parents of little girls, little girls themselves, women, people who are nonbinary or who are in LGBTQ+ relationships and see themselves represented in the show — they are all impacted and uplifted positively by the show,” Courtney says. “In the show, they feel seen, they feel heard, they feel connected. They feel the love and warmth because what we’re showing on stage is real. It’s real, and that transfers.”
Courtney is at her family’s home in South Ozone Park in Jamaica, Queens, where she lives and grew up. She knew she loved to sing from an early age, through her place in a gospel choir in Harlem called Gospel for Teens, and honed those skills at the famed LaGuardia high school, where she studied opera. From there, she majored in musical theater at the University of Michigan.
“& Juliet” came to her about a year ago, when she received an audition.
“I was immediately overwhelmed with emotion to have a character embody love, respect for themselves and others, female empowerment, and so much more,” she says. “I thought to myself, ‘wow. To be able to get this opportunity to play this part is once in a lifetime.’ My best friend and her mom read the script with me and she said, ‘Lorna, you have to get this part.’ I felt the pressure!”
Starring on Broadway is obviously the dream for any theater performer, but holds special meaning for the native New Yorker.
“Growing up I couldn’t afford to see many Broadway shows, so I didn’t think that I would one day be in one,” she says. “The shows that I did see, I saw through my school or after-school program, and they were amazing. The performers danced their hearts out, sung their hearts out and really reached and touched me. I remember thinking, ‘I want to do that one day.’ To be able to be a performer and sing and dance and make people happy, make people move in their seats for a living? Oh, that’s incredible.”
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