Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves

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St. William Academy, somewhere in New Jersey, is putting on a production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Sister Magdalene, the all-girls school director of the drama club, hasn’t worked out some of the salient points: first, it’s 2005, and second, Romeo really should be played by someone male. Boomerang Theatre Company’s world premiere of playwright Gina Femia’s Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves looks at a trio of 17-year-old girls who are learning about expressing their true romantic feelings over the course of rehearsals.

As Amber, the cheerleader now cast as Juliet, asks: “What are we supposed to do, just put on plays that have only girls in them?! Do plays like that exist, even?!” How did Romeo and Juliet make the cut when there are plenty of great plays with all-female casts? Certainly they could have selected a show more reflecting the student body. There’s Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls…well, no, there’s some pretty foul language in that play. There’s Eve Merriam’s The Club…well, no, it’s set in an after hours gentleman’s club…but they’re all played by women and they look fashionable in tuxes…no, those are drag kings. There’s Nell Dunn’s Steaming…well, no, it’s set in a Russian steam bath in London and there’s full frontal nudity. There’s Clare Boothe Luce’s The Women…well, no, they’re not very nice women at all…There’s Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues…the Mother Superior will have a stroke! So let’s see the Pandora’s box that Romeo and Juliet brings our way.

Ellie and Britt have been lifelong besties sharing a lifelong hatred of cheerleaders. They bond as drama geeks and are good enough to get cast in every play the school puts on. Ellie is very staid and practical and, as it’s 2005, keeps her true (romantic) feelings for Britt under wraps. As it never comes up in conversation, Britt just assumes Ellie is straight. Britt openly defines herself as gay, which makes her a pariah amongst the cheerleaders and the rest of the student body, not to mention the nuns that don’t know what to make of her and find reasons to dump her in detention every day. Amber is the interloper in their midst, an upbeat cheerleader thrust into their worldview due to a season-ending injury and a need to come up with an extracurricular activity to maintain her scholarship.

We first meet Ellie and Britt in the girls’ restroom as Ellie tries to tend to a face wound Britt received at the hands of a cheerleader. The wound came about after Britt gently tugs the hair of a cheerleader she had an extended secret dalliance with over the summer. We see the familiarity in the way Ellie and Britt bond, but Ellie’s nursing of the wound is clearly that gentle caress of a lover, not a friend. Britt has known Ellie so long, she is oblivious to the subtlety.

Knowing the dramatic capabilities (or lack thereof) of their fellow students, Ellie comfortably assumes she and Britt will be cast as the two leads. Imagine her dismay when Sister Magdalene only has Ellie audition for the role of Mercutio. Perhaps the Sister, already cognizant of Ellie and Britt’s relationship and knowing the underlying themes of Mercutio and Romeo, though not wanting to encourage it openly, feels casting Ellie in the complex role of Mercutio is a better fit for the production. Along the same line of reasoning, casting the popular Amber as Juliet might sell tickets.

Walking in on Amber resigned to rehearsing alone, Ellie offers astute critiques and also makes no bones about how badly she wanted the role for herself. Amber doesn’t have the wherewithal to turn the critiques into practice but compliments Ellie on her past performances. Ellie’s grateful smile secretly sets Amber’s heart aflutter. The fact that Amber is not so secretly bisexual will come up when she is rehearsing with Britt and is accused of not making eye contact because Britt is gay. One particularly telling moment in their coming to terms with their own feelings is when Amber watches Ellie as she watches Britt listening on headphones to the song “Defying Gravity” from the musical Wicked for the very first time.

Unaware of Ellie’s feelings for her, Britt commits the ultimate betrayal of their friendship when she chooses to go to the Halloween dance dressed as Romeo to Amber’s Juliet instead of donning the skirt uniform Britt and Ellie had agreed on for their appearance as zombie cheerleaders. Further, after the nuns’ decree there will be no dancing at the Halloween dance, Amber and Britt engage in a sensual duet that leaves little to the imagination. The end result is the school’s cancellation of the production.

Leah Nicole Raymond gives a beautifully calibrated performance as Ellie. Her subtleties in delivery in her scenes with Britt may be tongue-in-cheek giveaways to the audience but they go surprisingly undetected by her scene partner. As a contrast, her scenes with Amber move from necessary disdain to a generous outpouring of help and concern for the colleague’s performance and therefore a success for all involved.

As Britt, Stacey Raymond finds much nuance in what even in 2005 would have been considered a “tomboyish” manner. Where she finds much depth to the gradual falling in love with Amber, she brings the requisite fury to her discovery of Amber and Ellie kissing, for that act alone is the unknowing catalyst for the destruction of the girls’ relationships we have watched blossom.

Rocky Vega as Amber enters as the antagonist but slowly wins us over as we gradually learn that the person Amber is a lot more complex than the cheerleader Amber. Her revealing to Britt that she is bisexual creates a safe zone for them to work productively in rehearsal, setting Britt at ease and giving Amber the freedom to create that she doesn’t have as a cheerleader. Vega finds shading throughout the role: Amber turning her head away from Britt as Britt moves in for a kiss is a conscious choice that gently suggests a boundary has been crossed, but doesn’t necessarily negate the friendship.

Director Scott Ebersold works wonders with the double-edged sword of the audience knowing full well these performances are colored by the play taking place close to 20 years ago when girls this age didn’t have the benefit of understanding their gender identity as girls do in 2024. Social media and sexual education have made great strides in these decades yet we don’t for even a moment feel that Mr. Ebersold’s concept gives us a museum piece. Ebersold gets vibrant heartfelt performances from each of the three actresses.

Scenic designer Emmett Grosland recreates the feel of a traditional Catholic school with a small stage in the auditorium, a swing door that swooshes open from an unseen hallway, a St. William Academy logo inscribed over the main floor, and a large ivory crucifix hovering over the room. The space provides an easy segue to the bedroom and outer stoop for the tumultuous sleepover scene. Lighting designer Derek Van Heel has fun with key moments like green light for the scene change after “Defying Gravity” as well as a spotlit dance for Britt and Amber on Halloween. The dimming fluorescents give the rehearsal space that appropriate institutional feel. Costume designer Brynne Oster-Bainnson provides spot-on school uniforms and beautiful Romeo and Juliet period-wear. Sound designer Sam Kaseta provides the rock and pop soundtrack placing us firmly in the first decade of this century.

The final scene, brilliantly staged with each actress facing the audience delivering shards of life and love updates since graduation, makes crystal clear they are no longer in one another’s lives but have been unequivocally forever changed and pleasantly haunted by their times together. It is a poignant coda that reminds us of the life-affirming influence of our adolescent experiences even when we think the scrapbooks have been stored safely away.

Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves (through November 24, 2024)

Boomerang Theatre Company

A.R.T./New York Theatres

The Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre, 502 West 53rd Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.boomerangtheatre.org

Running time: 90 minutes without an intermission