Meet the cast of '& Juliet' on Broadway

Learn more about the stars of this new musical, now on Broadway after premiering in London.

Stories of star-crossed young lovers from feuding families don’t come more famous – or woeful – than Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Quick recap: they meet, they fall in love, they tragically die. He drinks poison because he thinks she’s dead. (Nope. Just sleeping.) When she wakes up and realizes he’s gone, she takes a knife (“O happy dagger!”) and takes her own life.

But what if Juliet dropped the blade, picked herself up, and started a whole new life? The pop jukebox musical & Juliet, now on Broadway after a hit London premiere, imagines that alternative ending — conceived, in the show, by Shakespeare's wife in real time — as a fresh start. Accompanied by her nurse, Juliet hightails it out of Verona and heads to Paris, where new adventures await.

These characters from Shakespeare's play, plus a host of new characters created for & Juliet, are played on Broadway by a mix of theatre veterans and Broadway newcomers. The show stars Lorna Courtney as Juliet, two-time Tony Award nominee Stark Sands and Betsy Wolfe as the Bard of Avon and his wife, and Tony winner Paulo Szot as Lance, a new character.

Below, read more about these artists and more bringing this larger-than-life show to the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.

Get & Juliet tickets now.

Lorna Courtney

A New Yorker “through and through from Jamaica, Queens,” as she notes on her personal site, and a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she majored in musical theatre, Courtney breaks through to the Broadway starring league as Juliet. Previously on Broadway, she played Rosalia and understudied Maria in Ivo van Hove’s revival of West Side Story and covered the roles of Alana and Zoe in Dear Evan Hansen.

Betsy Wolfe

A California native, Wolfe recently told On Stage that playing Anne Hathaway “is truly the most fun I’ve had on stage.” She’s played a variety of roles in musicals on Broadway. Most recently, she starred as Jenna, the title character, in Waitress.

She took over that part six months after wrapping the revival of Falsettos, in which she played the main characters' lesbian neighbor. Other Broadway credits include girlfriend roles in The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Bullets Over Broadway, and in 2020, she starred in the holiday film Estella Scrooge: A Christmas Carol with a Twist.

Stark Sands

Sands has theatrical connections to William Shakespeare — his latest role — and a contemporary Anne Hathaway. For playing Ferdinand in Classic Stage Company’s production of The Tempest, Actors’ Equity honored him in 2009 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Shakespearean Play. The same year, he played actress Anne Hathaway’s twin brother in a Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night.

Sands has ping-ponged between plays and musicals on Broadway. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his Broadway debut in the World War I drama Journey’s End and earned another nod for playing shoe factory owner Charlie in Kinky Boots. To Kill a Mockingbird and American Idiot round out his Broadway credits.

Paulo Szot

An actor and opera star at home, Brazilian-born Szot returns to Broadway as Lance, the bossy father of a young man Juliet meets in Paris. For his 2008 Broadway debut as Emile De Becque (the singer of “Some Enchanted Evening”) in the Lincoln Center revival of South Pacific, he won a Tony Award.

He has razzle-dazzled twice as a replacement Billy Flynn in Chicago and headlined opera productions at the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and beyond. Back in Brazil, has performed the repertoire of artists ranging from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Rossini.

Philippe Arroyo

A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Arroyo plays Francois, a young man Juliet meets in Paris. Previously, he appeared national tours of Aladdin and Into the Woods, and he makes his Broadway debut in & Juliet.

Melanie La Barrie

Praised by critics for her strong comic chops and vocals, La Barrie reprises her role of Juliet’s devoted nurse from the original U.K. production in her Broadway debut. She received a 2020 WhatsOnStage Award nomination for her performance there, and it remains to be seen whether she'll pick up even more nods on this side of the pond.

Justin David Sullivan

Raised in Southern California and now based in New York, Sullivan is a genderqueer singer, actor, and artist who’s making their Broadway debut as Juliet’s non-binary friend, May. Their last NYC theatre appearance was in an Off-Broadway production of Spring Awakening at Urban Stages in 2021.

Ben Jackson Walker

A graduate of the University of Michigan with a musical theatre degree whose regional credits include Beauty and the Beast, Walker makes his Broadway debut as Romeo. No spoilers on how his character figures into the plot — get tickets to the show to find out.

Get & Juliet tickets now.

Photo credit: Lorna Courtney and Melanie La Barrie in & Juliet in Toronto. (Photo by Matthew Murphy)