Max Martin isn’t a household name – unless you live in a household with a serious pop music aficionado. But the Swedish songwriter and producer has been a dominant force in that field for a few decades now.
In fact, he’s written more No. 1 singles than anyone in music history, save Paul McCartney. Since 1998, Martin has put 27 songs atop the charts, helping create the sound that’s made stars of Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande.
So call it a fun coincidence that Perry was playing Minneapolis’ Target Center on Tuesday night while a musical full of Martin’s songs (including a few made famous by Perry) was setting up shop a few blocks away at the Orpheum Theatre. I can’t speak to Perry’s performance, but I can say this: The North American touring production of “& Juliet” might be the apotheosis of the jukebox musical, the most successful effort yet of that theatrical subgenre, which uses familiar music to tell a fresh story.
While “Mamma Mia” and “Moulin Rouge!” did fine things with the idea, they’re nowhere near as imaginative and inspiring as “& Juliet.” And this touring production is terrific, full of eye-popping full-cast dance numbers rooted in nightclub moves of the ‘90s and ‘00s and featuring some magnificent voices that I daresay eclipse those of these songs’ original purveyors.
And it helps that it’s very funny. David West Read has written a script that’s a kind of meta historical fantasy: We watch as a very 21st-century version of William Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, debate the merits of “Romeo and Juliet,” which she regards as dissatisfying because of Juliet’s lack of agency in that quintessential romantic tragedy.
So together they fashion a sequel that unfolds before our eyes and ears, each writer upping the other with new scenarios and characters, including Hathaway inserting herself into the story as a friend of Juliet. And Martin’s songs (mostly) fit the action well, from the playwriting pair arguing over the show’s direction with the help of the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” to Rachel Simone Webb’s Juliet making an affecting ballad of Spears’ “Baby One More Time” to a showstopping take on Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” directed at a recently revived Romeo.
The driving force at the center of almost all the show’s best numbers is Webb’s voice, which is a marvelous instrument for this music, equally capable of delivering touching tenderness or a velvety wail of triumphant transcendence. But Teal Wicks’ Anne is the quirky catalyst for this offbeat tale – spiriting Juliet and friends away to Paris to be tossed into the middle of a romantic triangle or two – and Wicks makes her magnetic in a lovably dorky kind of way.
She’s a strong singer, as are Kathryn Allison as Juliet’s nurse and guardian, Angelique, and Nick Drake as May, our heroine’s nonbinary sidekick and possible romantic rival.
Director Luke Sheppard and choreographer Jennifer Weber have inspired the cast to embrace the material with energy and enthusiasm, and the vision is complemented splendidly by Soutra Gilmour’s versatile set design, Paloma Young’s costumes, and the animations and projections of Andrzej Goulding.
They help make “& Juliet” a supremely well-executed bit of frothy fun that also holds some inspiring messages about empowerment and finding your own path.
‘& Juliet’
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Ave., Mpls.
Tickets: $337-$53, available at hennepinarts.org
Capsule: Contemporary pop meets the Elizabethan era to fun and funny effect.
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