“Only one who knows English in its Elizabethan fullness, who can ride with gusto the Elizabethan winds of rhetoric, lyric, and vituperation, who puts no bounds to the theater’s mirroring of nature and release of imagination, can bring to Shakespeare’s plays their merited acceptance with open arms and heart,” the American historian Will Durant wrote, “but such a man will tremble with delight at the splendor of their speech, and he will be moved to the depths of his spirit to follow and fathom their thought.”
Taking to full heart the Shakespeare original, Ballet West’s spellbinding Romeo & Juliet gives its audiences a thrilling, emotionally escalating rocket trip that oscillates between the headiest and most lyrical moments of romance, joy and humor and the darkest depths of disappointment and sadness. This intense balletic ride has gusto that never lets up, with the equally exceptional company cast of 50 and the Ballet West Orchestra, both easily handling the nuances of Michael Smuin’s choreography and Sergei Prokofiev’s score.
Photo: Ross Richey.
As a ballet, Romeo & Juliet is a high-spirited, definitive translation of a universally timeless text which propels a narrative of unchecked emotions marked by impulsive spikes of infatuation, the roiling undercurrents of familial conflicts and psychological vulnerabilities. The graceful guidance by Celia Fushille of the Smuin Estate, along with Jane Wood, Pamela Robinson-Harris and Bruce Caldwell (swordmaster), is plainly evident on stage, as well as in the orchestra pit, which is led by Jared Oaks. Ballet West’s dancers are as compelling in their theatrical gestures as in their movement techniques. The consistently most striking feature was the precise syncing of the orchestra and the onstage movement, which heightened the dramatic fidelity to the Shakespearean juggernaut.
On opening night, in their pas de deux near the end of the first act Romeo (Hadriel Diniz) and Juliet (Amy Potter) dazzled, in conveying their distinguishing features of their love, including the exuberant passion, sweetness, playfulness and even the subtle foreshadowing of their tragic sacrifice. The absence of a traditional large-scale form in Prokofiev’s music for this particular dance evokes the unpredictable love at play here and its emotionally expansive nature.
Diniz initially signals Romeo as uncomplicated, but the music’s thematic elements also open up his emotional depth. Meanwhile, Potter excels in the complex seven-part rondo form that has been modified and allows us to see Juliet as more than an innocent 14-year-old woman. She is simultaneously capable of being mature and playful as well as contemplative about the risks and realities of being swept up in her intensifying infatuation with Romeo.
Here, the orchestra captures the nuances that are replicated with impressive theatrical effect by Diniz and Potter on stage. While Juliet is more mature and complex, the changes between tonal centers in the music and direct modulations also emphasize that she is still a child in many ways.
Meanwhile, Prokofiev’s music gives Romeo choice mature moments in smoothly rendered transitions between several tonal centers, even as much of the musical material accents his masculine, self-confident swagger. Elsewhere in the ballet, humorous moments emphasize these same traits when Romeo dances with Mercutio (William Lynch) and Benvolio (Loren Walton).
Returning to the love dance between Romeo and Juliet, their respective initial thematic ideas do not cross over into the second section when the two lovers are formally joined. It is here that Prokofiev rounds out his harmonic palette, as the E flat and B flat major keys are highlighted in the second section of their love dance. Their unifying love is established.
Meanwhile, the riveting second act crackles in the theatrical juxtaposition of wit and emotional escalation, as the men on the Capulet and Montague sides cannot regulate their emotions. With the appropriate seething rage, Adrian Fry is outstanding as Tybalt, offering some of the ballet’s most absorbing scenes with swordsman choreography and the sly devilish allusion to his partnering with Lady Capulet (Nicole Fannéy, joining in one of the most unforgettable scenes in this ballet).
Photo: Ross Richey.
Tybalt is Lady Capulet’s nephew and thus Juliet’s cousin and while Shakespeare does not specifically indicate that Tybalt and Lady Capulet had an affair behind Lord Capulet’s back, there also is nothing specified in the play that could preclude such an ironic possibility. So, even a hint of artistic license taken in this regard is dynamite in the best sense of the word. The entire sequence — from when Tybalt kills Mercutio to Romeo’s explosive impulse that leads him to slay Tybalt — is one hell of a roller coaster ride and the dancers dominate in emotionally stunning performances.
The second act is a blockbuster, conveying why emotional intelligence is vital in confronting the gravest and most consequential range of decisions we inevitably face in life. It is a profound portrayal of the coming abyss of destruction that Shakespeare had set forth in the play.
As Adam Sklute, artistic director, has noted, after The Nutcracker, Romeo & Juliet is the most frequently staged story on the ballet stage. And, Ballet West makes a slam dunk case for this version, as being the most authentic and definitive interpretation of Shakespeare’s text through the respective languages and vocabularies of ballet and music. Smuin in his choreography and Prokofiev in his music open up the contours of Romeo & Juliet not only as the prepossessing love story of literature, but also as a testament to the individual’s rights of freedom and dignity.
In the late 16th century, the apex of the Elizabethan Age, the ideals of humanism already heralded the vigorous challenges to traditional feudalism, with the dawning of an age recognizing that the individual, who is seen as capable of innate goodness and the resolve to defy the corrupting and constraining institutions of their society, should be encouraged to follow their heart, literally, and to do so without the necessity of an ecclesiastical blessing. As the play was published in 1597, the characters of Romeo and Juliet would have born during this transitional time.
Smuin, in the 1970s, and Prokofiev, in the 1930s, instinctively comprehended the timeless complexities of these human experiences in their worldviews, when the intense emotional passions of love run up against the conventions and constraints of the society at their time. Certainly, the sacrifices of Romeo and Juliet are impulsive. But only when a society offers the support and resources to live with dignity and to experience freedom of choice as genuinely as possible, only then it becomes possible to avert the abyss of destruction that leads to the tragic conclusion unfolding in Romeo & Juliet. It is as painfully relevant in 2025 as it was in 1597.
Next to the San Francisco Ballet, Ballet West was the only other U.S, company to perform Smuin’s Romeo & Juliet, when it gave the ballet its Utah premiere in 1988. The ballet became a popular addition to the repertoire. Sklute revived it in 2022, which involved reconstructing the original sets. Likewise, The Smuin Estate provided access to the newer costumes as well as the restaging, which included Fushille‘s involvement. Hence, the overall production look is ravishing.
Three performances remain in this superlative production. For tickets and more information, see the Ballet West website.