Romeo & Julie (KXT) ★★★★

Written by Gary Owen. Mad March Hare Theatre Co in association with Bakehouse Theatre Co. KXT on Broadway. 8–23 May, 2026.

It’s all about choices. Who gets them in life, and what they make of them. Who gets to be in charge of their own lives, and who gets stuck with what life gives them. Gary Owen’s Romeo & Julie has stars and lovers, but the similarities to its Shakespearean namesake more or less end there.

Romy (Alex Kirwan) is a sweet guy with a big heart. The single teen-dad is raising his baby Neve with only the barest support from his alcoholic mother, Barb (Claudia Barrie — who also directs). One day, exhausted, he’s woken up from an impromptu public nap by high-schooler Julie (Estelle Davis) who’s on the verge of going to uni to study physics. Despite her parents’ best efforts, Julie finds herself falling for the caring high school dropout and putting all her dreams for her future on the line.

Welsh playwright Gary Owen has taken inspiration from Shakespeare’s doomed couple and given it a very contemporary spin to make a comic drama that is more grit than grins. You’ll laugh, and you’re meant to laugh, but the laughs come as a release to the working-class reality of the play’s world. Instead of Shakespeare’s warring high-born families, we have two working-class households both alike in fragility. Julie’s family have sacrificed to give her the best opportunities they could, sending her to a good school so she can be the first in the family to go to uni. Romy’s family are scraping by, surviving one day at a time. There are no masquerade balls or friars to be seen.

Owen writes Romy and Julie like good-hearted but naive youths who find themselves in situations beyond their experience. Romy’s sudden immersion into parenting has him worn thin, but his heart is resolutely in the right place. Julie has a blindly aspirational-middle-class mindset, fostered by her protective parents. Julie is looking up at the stars while Romy is stuck staring at his feet for fear of tripping. Any attempt at a rom-com romance is punctured by the messy truth of economic insecurity and a child’s needs — a soiled nappy, by any other name, would smell just as terrible.

The cast of five (including Christopher Stollery and Linda Nicholls-Gidley as Julie’s parents) are all exceptional. Their performances beautifully straddle the story’s laughs and drama. It’s genuinely relaxing to be able to watch a group of performances that feel genuine and complete, with no rough edges to pull you out of the story and fantasy they are creating on stage.

Kirwan and Davis make a winning stage couple. Kirwan gives Romy a cheeky, boyish charm that makes Julie’s attraction feel earned. He’s a nice kid struggling to be grown up. Davis balances Julie’s innocence and stubborn cleverness to form a likeable young woman you want to see succeed. Together they successfully navigate the play’s murkier messages about pregnancy, hard choices and the hardships of working-class life without condescension.

This production’s success lies with director Claudia Barrie, who works from a place of genuine humanity to build these five characters. Even as the play has some third act wobbles and didactic scenes, and stretches itself to make its point and give us one last Shakespearean echo (the final “death” is more emotional than literal), the richness of the character work holds us steady.

It would be easy to dismiss large chunks of Romeo & Julie as a form of poverty porn were it not for the layered depiction of each character. When reduced to simple descriptors — drunk mum, angry dad, single parent — it reads like a list of clichés, but through nuanced writing and deep performances the observations of poverty read as authentic without being exploitative. In the end the two families aren’t warring with each other; they are struggling to survive against a system that is keeping them all down.

While the production elements of the show lack finesse, Romeo & Julie offers up a moving, funny script with five fantastic performances. Gary Owen may resort to some overly preachy moments, but there is still real beauty here.