Guest post written by Teach the Torches to Burn: A Romeo & Juliet Remix author Caleb Roehrig
Caleb Roehrig is a former actor and television producer who cannot seem to live in one place. Currently dividing his time between Chicago and Helsinki, he is an expert at writing on planes and recovering from jet lag. His young adult titles include the acclaimed thrillers Last Seen Leaving, Death Prefers Blondes, and The Fell of Dark, as well as The Poison Pen—a tie-in to the CW’s popular Riverdale television series—and the Archie Horror original novel A Werewolf in Riverdale. His short stories have appeared in anthologies such as His Hideous Heart, Out Now, and Serendipity. Wherever he’s living at the moment, he’s there with his husband and an overabundance of books.
Releasing on August 22nd, Teach the Torches to Burn is a queer star-crossed love amid a centuries-old feud takes center stage in this Romeo & Juliet remix that knows sometimes, the best way is to make it gay.
When I sat down to the formidable task of retelling William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, I did so with the knowledge that I was treading an extremely well-beaten path. As English-language plays go, few are more famous, more performed, more adapted, or more influential—so how would I go about putting my own spin on it? What could I say that hadn’t been said? And what has already been said, when it comes down to it?
Well, I did my research, and browsed my way through countless interpretations of this story. Some were sublime, and some were forgettable, but every one of them made it clear that our cultural love affair with this timeless tragedy will likely never end. Its messages are too clear, and its rich language is simply too pleasurable to ever fade into obscurity. (Plus, it’s in the public domain, making it free for high school drama clubs to tackle year after year.)
But if you’re planning an evening with that special someone, and you’re thinking a little star-crossed love might be in order, here are five of my favorite R&J adaptations:
1. Romeo & Juliet (1968)
I tend to think of the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli film as the Granddaddy of all of Hollywood’s numerous renditions of this particular story, even though it was far from the first. (It wasn’t even the most prestigious of all the countless screen adaptations up to this point, an honor that probably goes to Irving Thalberg’s star-studded, no-expenses-spared 1936 version.) But what Zeffirelli’s R&J may have lacked in above-the-fold names, it more than made up for in opulence and sincerity. Part of its success lies in the fact that, for once, actual teenagers played the lead roles. It highlights the poignancy of the tragedy in a way that no seasoned veteran, no matter how talented, could truly replicate.
2. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Zeffirelli’s film may be the definitive version in terms of its faithfulness to the source material, but to those of a certain generation, (*cough cough*) Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation is the only one that matters. It’s impossible to overstate the excitement caused by just the casting news alone, (a genuine who’s who of 1996’s current- and next-big-things,) but the soundtrack, the lead performances, and the decision to use Shakespeare’s original, unchanged prose in a defiantly modern setting made it instantly iconic. It’s this last choice that makes me love it, honestly, because it’s precisely what theatrical adaptations do all the time, and it proves the versatility, endurability, and—above all—the eternal relevance of this oft-told tale.
3. West Side Story (1961/2021)
No list of R&J retellings would be complete without what is arguably the most successful reimagining of the play in recent times. Out of all the adaptations, permutations, and transformations over the years, West Side Story is probably the one with the most lasting cultural legacy of its own. A Tony award-winning musical turned Oscar-winning film, (which just had its own Oscar-winning readaptation in 2021,) it produced a wealth of catchy songs and familiar references that exist wholly apart from the work that inspired it. Even if you’re not a fan of musicals, you probably know about the Sharks and the Jets, or the melody to “I Feel Pretty.” Even if you’re not a fan of musicals, you’ve got to acknowledge the impressiveness of that kind of impact.
4. & Juliet (2019)
Of course, if you’re not a fan of musicals, you may not be familiar with this particular choice: & Juliet, a jukebox musical featuring massive 90s/00s pop hits like “…Baby One More Time,” “Teenage Dream,” and “I Want it That Way.” The retelling is more of a meta revision, exploring what might have happened to Juliet after the play was over, if she had actually lived instead of died. In this version, William Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, (no, not that one) become characters in the story as well, as they duel to write a new and more satisfying conclusion. It’s fun and irreverent, bursting with karaoke favorites, and even features a canonically non-binary character—not to mention a complicated love-quadrangle that would make the Bard proud.
5. Valley Girl (1983/2020)
As a former Angeleno, I admit that stories set in LA just hit different; and this take on R&J—about a star-crossed love affair between a good girl from Sherman Oaks and a bad boy from Hollywood—has the right stuff. Sure, it’s a little dated, but for an 80s movie about teenagers in love, it takes its subject seriously in a way that a lot of contemporaneous fare didn’t. This is another riff on Shakespeare that got its own remake, by the way, in the form of another jukebox musical (trend alert!) featuring a brilliantly-cast Alicia Silverstone telling the story to her daughter in flashbacks. I’ll leave it to you to determine whether either film stands the test of time, but both prove that Shakespeare? Will always be famous. Like, totally, for sure.
