Romeo and Juliet, the comedy
The one thing you can always depend on when it comes to the classics, is that not everyone has actually read them, and those who have don't remember much about them.
Everyone's heard the jokes (and we've discussed the truths) that no one actually reads James Joyce's "Ullysses." But what really shocked me was this NPR report on a new production of "Romeo and Juliet," which I assumed everyone had at least cursory knowledge of. Like, you know, how it ends.
Co-directed by a man who's never read the play (I KNOW!), "Romeo and Juliet" gets the rewrite treatment, with the dialogue lifted entirely from conversations the creators had with unsuspecting friends who were trying to piece together the plot. The results go something like this:
Yes, it is painful. But also hilarious. If you're game to give it a try, the play runs through mid-January at New York City's Kitchen Theater."Romeo, oh Romeo, where art thou Romeo. Something or something and you are the sun! I don't remember. I don't have it memorized.""It is the East, and Juliet is the West.""Juliet is the sky, and I am the sun. No ... It's getting all jumbled in my head. Jumbled in my head!"
