It’s hard to think of a jukebox musical that has been touched by quite so many pop stars. Since & Juliet opened on the West End in 2019 and Broadway in 2022, Katy Perry, Adam Lambert, ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys have all come to the show. Kelly Clarkson features on the US cast album, Jessie J on the UK one – even Robyn and Harry Styles have come to early developments. “It was just him, sitting in a rehearsal room – just right there, it was crazy,” says the show’s writer, David West Read, best known for his work on Schitt’s Creek, while speaking with Guardian Australia in New York.
That stars of this calibre would take such an interest makes sense given one extra fact: every song in the show is by Sweden’s legendary hitmaker Max Martin, who has written for almost all of them and then some.
