Romeo & Juliet: complete cast and creative team announced

The complete cast and creative team has been announced for the upcoming Broadway revival of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet opening at Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre on 19 Sep 2013, following previews from 24 Aug, and playing a limited engagement through to 12 Jan 2014.

Romeo and Juliet, directed by five-time Tony Award nominee David Leveaux, will star Orlando Bloom, in his Broadway debut, alongside Tony Award nominee Condola Rashad (Stick Fly), as Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers.

The cast will also star Jayne Houdyshell (Nurse), Brent Carver (Friar Laurence), Chuck Cooper (Lord Capulet), Christian Camargo (Mercutio), Roslyn Ruff (Lady Capulet), Justin Guarini (Paris), Conrad Kemp (Benvolio), Corey Hawkins (Tybalt) and Geoffrey Owens (Prince Escalus).

Joining the company in the ensemble are Donte Bonner, Joe Carroll, Don Guillory, Sheria Irving, Maurice Jones, Eric Loscheider, Spencer Plachy, Michael Rudko, Tracy Sallows, Thomas Schall, Carolyn Michelle Smith and Nance Williamson.

The creative team includes set design by Jesse Poleshuck, costumes by Fabio Toblini, lighting design by David Weiner and sound design by David Van Tieghe.

This production will mark the first time in 36 years that Romeo and Juliet will be produced for Broadway. This version of the classic tale will retain Shakespeare's original language but have a modern setting in which members of the contentious Montague and Capulet families will be of differing ethnicities.

One of Shakespeare's best known plays, Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic-romances dating back over 500 years. The famous youthful lovers first appeared in Italian novella in the 1500's and gained popularity in England after being adapted and translated into English by Arthur Brooke in 1562.

As described in Brooke's poem, "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet" - on which Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is based - while the Montagues and Capulets are from different "races" or "stocks" their deadly feud is not based on their race, but rather on the "grudging envy" of men of "equal state."

In this new production, the members of the Montague household will be white, and the blood relatives of the Capulet family will be black. While race defines the family lineages, the original cause of the 'ancient quarrel', passed down by successive generations to their young, has been lost to time. Shakespeare's dramatization of the original poem sets the two young lovers in a context of prejudice, authoritarian parents, and a never ending cycle of 'revenge.' Against this background, the strength of their love changes the world.

The last time Romeo and Juliet was produced on Broadway was the 1977 Circle in the Square production featuring Paul Ryan Rudd and Pamela Payton-Wright. Other notable New York productions include: the Public Theater's 2012 gala staged-reading at the Delacorte Theater starring Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep; the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2011 production at the Park Avenue Armory starring Sam Troughton and Mariah Gale; the Public Theater's 2007 Shakespeare in the Park production starring Oscar Isaac and Lauren Ambrose; the 1986 Shakespeare on Broadway for the Schools repertory production starring Geoffrey Owens and Regina Taylor; The Old Vic Company's 1956 production at the Winter Garden Theater starring John Neville and Claire Bloom; as well as the 1940 Broadway production starring Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.