Ask me sometime about my opinions on teaching Shakespeare. Really, don't. Unless you have a lot of time and energy on your hands. I get emotional. And dramatic. And loud. And possibly inappropriate.
Why does this matter? Well, my friend freshman year of high school somehow got the soundtrack to Roméo et Juliette, de la Haine à l'Amour, a French musical of Romeo and Juliet. I think someone in her family sent it to her? I'm a bit unclear. However we got hold of it, we had it and we loved it. She made a copy of it for me and it's traveled through my various computers ever since, occasionally listening to it, wishing I spoke French, and trying to decipher what exactly was happening in each song and who was singing.
It sat in the back of my mind for a long time when one day I was on tumblr and someone I followed reblogged this gifset from a Hungarian production of Romeo and Juliet set in a kind of dystopic future Verona with lots of FIRE (cuz apparently Hungarians like fire?) and Mercutio was obviously bisexual and "OMG Bereczki Zoltánwas totally awesome as Mercutio go look!" I was like, "Sweet; I like cool adaptations of Romeo and Juliet and Mercutio is my favorite. Let's check this out!" And as soon as the song started playing I got really excited. It was the music from that French soundtrack my friend gave us in high school! But in Hungarian! So I got really excited, watched the whole thing, watched it again, and then, when I couldn't find the soundtrack to buy, made my own (sssshhhh). And then I managed to find the English version (which sucked, but I can understand the lyrics so, there's that).
But enough about me, let's move on to this stunning musical.
Introduction
Star crossed lovers, three day romance that leaves a bloody trail of murders and ends in the dual suicide of two idiotic teenagers. That's the best I got for you. I hate when people try to make it look like a "true love romance and sad how they don't end up living happily ever after boo hoo" kind of story. No. It's about two idiotic families who care more about their feud than the mental and emotional stability of their children. It's horrible, sad, and not at all romantic.
And Mercutio dies. Which is the worst part.
Soundtrack
I have three versions of the soundtrack so, Jekyll and Hyde style, I'm going to take a quick look at all three.
The French version is the first I ever listened to and, talent wise, I think it has the strongest singers. Of course, this is also the only non-live recording that I have, so of course they are all at their best with no background interference, which makes a huge difference. The music itself is gorgeous. It has some beautiful love songs for the two lovers ("Aimer," "Love It" but called "These Are My Rivers" in the London soundtrack) and some really fun songs as well ("Les Rois du monde," "Kings of the World," which apparently became popular as a single in France for a while. Cool.).
Even though I do think that the French soundtrack has the strongest singers, the Hungarian version is my favorite. They put a lot of great emotion into every single song. And it's all live, so there's that as well. One of the best live recordings of a musical I've heard in a while. I'm particularly impressed with how well they do in some of the more energetic songs. Some of the songs changed, as well. Order in the show as well as what they tell in the story. And Paris has two more songs.
The English version. What to say? The singers do passably well, but their talent is a bit shadowed by the awful lyrics. Seriously, the translation is kind of awful. But, the singers do well with what they have.
I honestly don't have much to say about the English version. It's nice being able to hear songs I love in a language I understand, though. I think that's the biggest plus.
Favorite Songs
Because I'm a cheater and I have three soundtracks, I'm choosing a song from each.
For the French soundtrack, I think I'd have to pick "Les Rois de monde" because it's just so much fun. And I really love their voices in it.
For the Hungarian version, I love, love, love to listen to their version of "On Dit Dae la Rue." I have no idea what the title of that song is in Hungarian, but it is really fun.
My favorite song from the London cast is a more subdued one, "Empty Sky." It's sung near the very end by Friar Lawrence. It's just beautiful.
The Show
Through the glory that is Youtube, I have managed to watch both the French and Hungarian versions with English subtitles. Well, most of the French version. I've seen the whole thing with Vietnamese subtitles (not helpful for me, personally) and a great deal of it with English subtitles. Both the Hungarian and French versions are very different, both in how they present the different characters as well as the sets, costumes, order of songs, and even removing some characters in the Hungarian version. With that in mind, I'm going to go at these both separately.
French
The French version uses more medieval inspired costumes. Inspired, mind you. With lots of leather. Lots. I feel like it does a better job than most of making sure the audience recognizes that Romeo and Juliet are being rather hasty in their romance. It still focuses a great deal on the romance between the two, but I feel that the emphasis is on the feud, which I like. They also have two characters that I never really caught listening to the show. There's this poet that adds a bit of narration to different parts (I honestly feel his presence is kind of superfluous). And Death is a character. She doesn't say anything, but her presence is really creepy and neat. I have to admit, it took me a while to get that she was supposed to be Death.
Something else that was interesting about the show: one of the characters spoke sign language. I think she may have been a maid or an attendant of some kind to Juliet. But she definitely spoke some form of sign language. At first I was just wondering if the dancing gestures were just really choreographed, but, no. She is actually signing. At one point, Juliet even flips the Nurse's sleeve out of the way so she can see what the maid is signing. And during "Les Beaux Les Laids" I think some of the other actors sign a bit as well. I can't be sure since I don't speak French or any form of sign language (let alone French sign language). It was a really cool addition. For one, I love to see sign language; it's a beautiful language. For another, representation! Yay!
Hungarian
I have to say that I like this version SO MUCH MORE than the French version. If only for Mercutio. Mercutio was my favorite character when we read the play and the way Bereczki Zoltán (who also plays Franz Joseph in the Hungarian Elisabeth das Musical) portrays him is exactly how I pictured him when we read the play. He's hilarious, kind of a trouble maker, a bit of a dick, that funny guy who always needs to be the center of attention but still kind of takes care of everyone in his own insane kind of way. He nailed it. He's hilarious. And I love him for it.
Aside from the great Mercutio, the whole futuristic dystopia thing going on is also really cool. It's also a bit dirtier than the French version. If the translations are anything to go by (I'm going to assume they were both good subtitles), the lyrics got a bit more raunchy for the Hungarians. I like it, to be honest. They also changed Tybalt's character quite a bit. For one, he has seizures (which we also see him take meds for, later on), is kind of manic, crazy in a "I'm going to purposefully burn my hand in this fire 'cuz I'm nuts" kind of way, and has a pedophile crush on his cousin Juliet. In other news, Szabó Szilveszter who plays Tybalt also plays Death in the Hungarian Elisabeth das Musical. Yeah... the entire company is almost the same in both plays. They are pretty awesome.
It's so good.
Favorite Parts
French
I really like how they did "Les Beaux Les Laids" in this version. I love the Nurse in the French version. And the Hungarian version, heck, all versions. But, really, she's pretty great here.
Hungarian
I think I've made it pretty clear that I really love Bereczki Zoltán's interpretation of Mercutio. His performance in the duel scene and his death are amazing. It's a little long, but totally worth it. There's one part when Mercutio is dying (he takes a while to go) and he is up on this raised part of the stage and he kind of just steps off of it and falls onto the main stage while he continues singing. He thumps pretty hard, too. He's overall just pretty awesome.This is one of those shows that give me a lot of feels. For one, I am very attached to the play itself (Hamlet is my favorite Shakespeare play, though), I grew to love the music during a very formative part of my life, and, to top it all off, the music is great (in my humble opinion). I know a lot of people don't care for musicals in other languages, but I totally encourage you to try this one out.
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