Tom Holland’s Teary, Blood-Soaked Romeo That’s Igniting Fan Frenzy on London’s West End
Tom Holland is crying. No, it’s not because of the not-so-great reviews he’s been getting for playing the lead in “Romeo & Juliet” on the West End — that’s literally how his Romeo greets the audience when the play opens.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. These days, stepping into Duke of York’s Theatre in London is not unlike walking into a club. After waiting in a line that stretches down the street and passing inspection by security, you’re greeted by pulsating electronic music and encouraged to stop by the bar.
But, instead of dancing the night away to the hottest new DJ, young girls (and their parents and/or reluctant boyfriends) are flocking to London for the chance to see Holland play a star-crossed lover in avant-garde auteur Jamie Lloyd’s production.
For the record, I don’t mind the music — it’s kind of like if Nine Inch Nails soundtracked “Saturday Night Live’s” “High School Theatre Show” sketch, and it adds a certain sense of foreboding to the air, as if to say “this isn’t your typical ‘Romeo & Juliet'” (though we all know what happens at the end).
The heavy bass only intensifies as I take my seat — a surprisingly good one in the sixth row, though I did pay £295 for it (that translates to $377, steep even by Broadway standards). Due to Holland’s “Spider-Man” star power, “Romeo & Juliet” has quickly become the hottest ticket in town, with the play’s three-month run selling out in just two hours (a limited amount of tickets are released closer to show days, which is how I snagged mine).
As the play begins, the lights turn off and the music grows louder and more frantic than ever, causing some to jump in their seats as if watching a horror movie.
Holland’s Romeo is introduced to the crowd first via screen; like in Lloyd’s Olivier-winning “Sunset Boulevard,” cameramen flank the actors at certain points throughout the show, broadcasting the video live. Like a boxer entering the ring, he steps on stage — and then starts weeping. It’s a shocking show of emotion from Holland, who viewers are far more used to seeing kick ass in the Marvel Cinematic Universe than shed tears on stage.
After the initial surprise wears off, confusion sets in. Tears streaming down his chiseled face, Holland appears so distraught, so overcome with sadness that I almost wanted to leap on stage to comfort him. Has Lloyd decided to start this “Romeo & Juliet” at the end, when Romeo discovers what he thinks is his lover’s dead body? Then, Holland utters the word “Rosaline.
” He’s in shambles over an infatuation with someone he barely even knows — something that a good portion of the audience (myself included) can likely relate to. Indeed, the young girl next to me starts to snivel as soon as Holland emerges in a white tank top, showing off his ripped arm muscles, but I know that it is probably because of Shakespeare’s timeless and touching prose. Probably.
As it turns out, Holland’s extreme interpretation of Romeo’s lust for Rosaline is only a marker for things to come: between Romeo, Juliet (Francesca Amewudah-Rivers), the Nurse (Freema Agyeman) and the Friar (Michael Balogun), there is barely a dry eye on the stage for the play’s two and a half hour duration.
Yet despite “Romeo & Juliet’s” vast emotions, Lloyd’s subversive staging in which lines are delivered to the audience instead of to each other, props are basically eliminated and the use of video design becomes dizzying — gives those emotions nowhere to go. I suspect it’s this that has led to a majority of mixed reviews for Holland’s performance. Why have a big-name actor perform in such an intimate setting just to put him on a screen?
This isn’t Holland’s first time on stage — the 28-year-old got his start there, landing his first-ever professional role in Stephen Daldry’s “Billy Elliot the Musical” in 2008 — but it is his first time back in a decade away, during which he became a bona fide Hollywood star.
Despite his roots, there is still a prevailing belief in some industry circles that starry actors turn to theater when they want a “rest” from film and TV. And though Holland did say in June 2023 that he planned to “take a year off” from acting due to the mental impact filming of the Apple TV+ series “The Crowded Room,” “Romeo & Juliet” clearly isn’t a break — he spends most of the show portraying a suicidal emotional wreck, a task which is not exactly easy.
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