A new company is bringing us a new twist on two classic love stories. Shakespeare's tragedy
Romeo and Juliet and the French fairy tale turned Disney movie
Beauty and the Beast don't seem to have much in common, but this double feature by /novel/ draws surprising and satisfying parallels between the two stories. And the best part is that if you see them both, after the tragedy of
Romeo & Juliet the doomed lovers are reincarnated as
Beauty & the Beast in a story that's all about transformation and truly seeing each other, with a chance for a happy ending. Both stories are told with a minimalist and modern style that may look familiar; this production marks the #TCTheater return of
New Epic Theater's visionary Artistic Director Joseph Stodola, now based in Brooklyn and credited as Joseph Williams. Like all of New Epic's work, these two plays are gorgeous and tragic, but with a little bit of joy as Beauty finds her Beast prince. This is a short run and I caught it on its final weekend, so only three performances of the pair of plays remain. You can see them individually, but I recommend seeing both because this is definitely a situation where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Each piece stands on its own, but seen together creates a much deeper experience.
Click here for info and tickets (note: if you're seeing both plays, you can purchase them individually, or as a package that includes drinks and bites during the 30-minute intermission between plays).
