What connects Romeo and Juliet with AR Rahman? A new musical that takes the stage this weekend. Choreographed and directed by Jeffery Vardon, and presented by The Hot Shoe Dance Company, Romeo Juliet brings alive the classic romance in a modern setting — with flavours of the Mozart of Madras’ music and a blend of contemporary dance.
Salsa Mani, the final contestant in Jodi No.1 , on Vijay TV, will play the love-struck Romeo and Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, the hopeless romantic, Juliet.
Stage left
“We are reimagining the story set in today’s times, along the West Coast of Kerala, in a fictional town called Alamara — a place that Shakespeare refers to in his work as well,” says Vardon.
So, onstage, expect to see a lot of coconut trees, the lighthouses of Kochi and expansive horizons to convey an illusion of bigness on stage.
The play has a split stage format with Romeo’s local, Indianised setting on one side and Juliet’s upmarket, aristocratic decor on the other. Think moodas , or Indian cane stools, juxtaposed with a fancy gazebo. Colour changes on the LED backdrop reflect the mood of the play, says Vardon, adding that the sets were deliberately kept simple yet stylish — we assume, to accommodate all the dancing that’s inevitable, considering 18 out of the 30-member cast are dancers.
Time to dance
This version of Romeo and Juliet will use music and movement more than dialogues to recreate what is often considered the greatest love story ever told. So the challenge for the team was to blend Tamil songs with contemporary dance forms like tango and salsa. “People are used to seeing certain visuals with these songs, so it’s difficult to break mindsets. Since I do not believe in fusion, I have juxtaposed the two styles,” explains Vardon.
Music and lyrics
Deepa Nambiar, who plays a Malayali nurse in the production, helped Vardon in the scripting, to contemporise the language while retaining the flavours of Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi. The characters are derived from the Shakespearean text, but they are Indian, explains Vardon. “For instance, Nambiar adds smatterings of Malayalam like ‘ moley ’ when she speaks. The male protagonist is Rahul, and a ‘Romeo’ to his friends Jai, a Tamilian and Kuldeep, a Punjabi.”
Sarathkumar, who is also the producer of the play, says, “We needed dance numbers that were meaningful, and this is why we chose AR Rahman. His songs have layers, and though choreographing them isn’t easy, it is beautiful. It took us three weeks to finalise the tracks that matched the context.” She adds that the songs finally picked range from Rahman’s Uyire days to the recent Thallipogathey phase. “Musicals only work when people know the songs and can identify with them. That’s how Rahman’s magic is going to work,” she concludes.
On July 8 and 9 at The Music Academy, 7 pm. Call 9840647797 for details. Tickets start from ₹300 onwards at bookmyshow.com.
