The 'Hunger Games' star will star opposite 'Heartstopper's Kit Connor in new Broadway production of 'Romeo and Juliet.'
Rachel Zegler is making her Broadway dreams come true! On Tuesday, it was announced that the West Side Story star and Heartstopper's Kit Connor will make their Broadway debuts in a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's classic Romeo and Juliet.
A press release for the production offers this official logline: "The youth are f**ked. Left to their own devices in their parents' world of violent ends, an impulsive pair of star-crossed lovers hurtle towards their inescapable fate. The intoxicating high of passion quickly descends into a brutal chaos that can only end one way."
Produced on Broadway by Seaview and stylized as ROMEO + JULIET, the upcoming Broadway production will be directed by Tony Award winner Sam Gold with music by GRAMMY Award winner Jack Antonoff and choreography by Tony Award winner Sonya Tayeh.
"With the presidential election coming up in November, I felt like making a show this fall that celebrates youth and hope, and unleashes the anger young people feel about the world they are inheriting," Gold said in a statement alongside the press release.
Zegler celebrated the announcement on X (formerly Twitter), sharing a post she wrote in 2016 that manifested her eventual Broadway debut.
"ok but when can i be on broadway," the post from 2016 reads. Zegler reposted the tweet, responding with several crying emojis.
"never beating the broadway debut allegations," she wrote in another post on X.
Tickets for ROMEO + JULIET are slated to go on sale next month. More information including theater, dates, design team and additional casting will be announced at a later date.
Zegler has another highly anticipated project fans are eager to get more information on. Disney fans got their first peek at the Hunger Games star in the upcoming live-action Snow White adaptation last October, with the news that the film has been pushed back from its planned March 2024 release date to March 21, 2025.
Zegler was spotted on the Snow White set in May 2022, wearing the OG Disney princess' iconic outfit -- and looking almost perfectly accurate to the beloved 1937 animated original.
The first official look at the film, which also stars Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, features Zegler in the classic Snow White look, with an above-the-shoulder bob, curled just slightly, in a yellow skirt and blue top, with red-and-white details on the sleeves and chest.
The upcoming adaptation is directed by Amazing Spider-Man and (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb, with a script by Greta Gerwig and Erin Cressida Wilson. Songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who previously wrote the lyrics for two new songs for Disney's 2019 remake of Aladdin, also wrote new songs for the film.
Gadot shared her excitement about taking on the role of the Evil Queen in the upcoming adaptation of the classic fairy tale with ET at the premiere of her 2021 Netflix movie, Red Notice.
"I'm excited about the fact that this is, like, an iconic character. I'm excited to create an iconic villain character in my own voice," Gadot raved. "I'm very, very, very excited and looking forward to playing the Evil Queen...Mirror, mirror on the wall. Can't wait!"
However, not everyone is as thrilled with the upcoming film. Peter Dinklage didn't mince words when he spoke out against the upcoming film during an interview on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, in January 2022.
"I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White," said the actor, who has a form of dwarfism. "You're still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Take a step back and look at what you're doing here. It makes no sense to me. You're progressive in one way and you're still making that f**king backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f**k are you doing, man?"
A spokesperson for Disney told ET in a statement at the time that "to avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community." The spokesperson added they were looking forward to "sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period."
RELATED CONTENT:
