Fabiola was fabulosa. The title role of Broadway Across Canada’s & Juliet, which opened Tuesday to an uproarious reception at Calgary’s Jubilee Auditorium, is played by Fabiola Caraballo Quijada, a Texas high school graduate who brought a powder keg full of energy and moxie to the production of a funny, catchy, pop-music saturated reimagining of what might have happened if Juliet had lived at the end of Romeo and Juliet instead of the tragic ending Shakespeare wrote for her. The central conceit of & Juliet’s witty, adventurous scrip -- written by Schlitt’s Creek writer David West Read -- is that Shakespeare’s (CJ Eldred) neglected wife Anne Hathaway (Crystal Kellogg) horns in on his latest tragedy to apply some script doctoring, giving Juliet some agency over her life instead of having her give it all up due to a four-day long relationship gone very wrong. It’s a bit of a cry for help from Hathaway, who raises the family’s children alone in the country while the Bard builds his legend in London concocting stories of unhappily married people who come to tragic endings more often than not. All of a sudden, with Anne doing a rewrite, Juliet has assembled an entourage of sidekicks and lights out out for Paris, 600 miles and a whole new genre removed from Verona, where the original Romeo & Juliet was set.. It turns out Juliet stepped out of a tragedy and into a jukebox musical featuring a steady stream of pop music classics penned by Max Martin, the music producer responsible for many radio earworms, including “Since U Been Gone‚” “Roar,” “Baby One More Time,” “It’s My Life,” “Larger Than Life‚” “That’s The Way It Is,” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” Things turn a little more Moulin Rouge in Paris, where Juliet, sidekick May (Nico Ochoa), Angelique (K Allison) and Hathaway, who hopes to steer Juliet to a happier ending than her husband envisioned for her, finagle their way into a fancy Paris nightclub. There, Juliet meets a guy named Francois (Noah Marlowe) and enough sparks fly to set in motion a romantic fantasy Paris trip that turns the original tragedy upside down. The songs -- which were almost all once smash hits recorded by the likes of Katy Perry, Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys and Bon Jovi, among others -- are instantly recognizable and fit into the plot of & Juliet so seamlessly it almost feels as if they were written specifically for the show. That’s where Quijada, who was awarded The Jimmy for being America’s top high school actress, shines on songs like “Since U Been Gone,” “Roar” and “Baby One More Time.” Born in Venezuela, raised in Texas, Quijada appears to be on the fast track to Broadway bright lights. She has plenty of support in & Juliet, including Paul-Jordan Jansen as Frankie’s overbearing father Lance Du Bois, who is built like an NFL offensive tackle but demonstrates comic and dramatic dexterity -- and some decent dance moves as a member of a boy band towards the show’s finale. Kellogg is wonderful as Hathaway and in many ways is the driving force of the show. She’s funny and sometimes sad and feels like the one with the most at stake. Ochoa is captivating as gender fluid May, Eldred is terrific as Shakespeare and Allison stands out among the crowd as a vocalist and as the long-ago lover of Lance who gets a second chance at love in Paris. There’s also another character, played by Joseph Torres, whose name got left out of the title but shows up in Paris when Shakespeare catches wind of what Anne has done to his script and becomes determined to add some conflict and obstacles for Juliet to overcome. Torres gives & Juliet a jolt of comedic and romantic energy, even if he muddles the romantic roadmap for Juliet--but the thing of it is, she’s 14. And in a Top 10 radio hit twist for the ages, this Juliet’s got plenty of time to learn a lesson or two about love before she decides to do anything dramatic. & Juliet at the Jubilee Auditorium through Sept. 20. At the Northern Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton from Sept. 22-Sept. 27.
