“& Juliet” imagines the life of the Shakespearean heroine if she had lived on

Sheppard’s lack of knowledge of the pop canon “causes a lot of humor among my fellow creators,” he admitted with a wry smile.

While songs like Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’, Spears’s ‘Oops! … I Did It Again” and Robyn’s “Show Me Love” have become enduring pop classics, many fans may be less familiar with the name Max Martin or the career of the reclusive, press-averse mastermind behind those anthems. Martin has not only scored more Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits as a songwriter than anyone except Paul McCartney (tied with John Lennon), but as a producer he has also had the most No. 1 Hot 100 hits. hits ever.

All of this made Martin’s extensive catalog ripe for transformation into a Broadway songbook show, following in the footsteps of forebears like ABBA (“Mamma Mia!”), Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (“Jersey Boys”), the Temptations (“Ain’t Too Proud “), Tina Turner, and more. Unlike those stars, Martin is not an artist, and he has shunned the spotlight for a long time. He rarely does interviews and told The New York Times in 2022 that he has “always been afraid of fame.”

After years of saying no to musicals inspired by his hits, Sheppard explained, Martin “reached a point where he was interested in his songs having something to say about the world beyond the recordings that we all know.”

“& Juliet” first landed in Sheppard’s inbox when book writer David West Read, a writer and producer of the Emmy-winning comedy “Schitt’s Creek,” sent him a draft of the script. “What was meant to be a ten-minute phone conversation ended up lasting several hours. And before I knew it, I was on a plane to visit Max in Sweden,” Sheppard recalled. “It felt like a big risk. It wasn’t just a revival or a musical based on a movie that already existed. Anything could go wrong and that felt quite exciting.”

A vibrant reimagining of Shakespeare’s tragedy of star-crossed lovers, ‘& Juliet’ presents an ultimate ‘what if’ scenario, speculating what might have happened had the heroine not committed suicide. With literary allusions, puns and jokes galore, the musical comedy instead sees Juliet (Rachel Simone Webb) travel from beautiful Verona to bustling Paris and embark on a journey of self-discovery. On board are her courageous nurse, Angelique (Kathryn Allison), and supportive non-binary best friend May (Nick Drake), who are having their own awakening.

A metatheatrical device, woven throughout the show, follows Elizabethan-era playwright Shakespeare (Corey Mach) as he worries about the premiere of “Romeo and Juliet” while his wife, Anne Hathaway (Teal Wicks), suggests he play the ending must change. . As Shakespeare and Anne battle over how the story should unfold, unaddressed marital tensions emerge, Anne writes herself into the story, and Shakespeare argues for the need to complicate the drama. In this process, Anne changes from a cautious, wine-drinking housewife to a strong-willed storyteller who is not afraid to question her husband’s ideas.

“Anne wants Juliet to go away and live her life and have adventures and meet new people and discover who she is and what she wants for herself in her life,” Wicks said in a Zoom interview. “As a mother who married young, Anne sees in this piece an opportunity to write a different story for the young woman.”

The story came to Read when he was at home with a concussion. “He was basically in a dark room for a lot of the day, listening to Max’s entire soundtrack all the time because he couldn’t look at screens or do anything else,” Sheppard said. “He was completely absorbed in the music and this story came to him.”

Like Shakespeare’s original, “& Juliet” has a pair of protagonists at its center. But instead of young lovers, the main duo here consists of two idiosyncratic women who are coming into their own: Juliet and Anne.

Having understudied Juliet on Broadway during her ensemble performance, Webb said she channels her brassy Dallas roots to bring out “the tenacity” she sees in the character. “Juliet’s biggest conflict is believing in herself.”

One of Webb’s favorite songs is Demi Lovato’s “Confident,” which she sings as Juliet encourages another character to be confident and unafraid. But at that moment she is still trying to convince herself. “(Sheppard) told me there are a few moments in the show where Juliet fakes it until she makes it. She radiates confidence. She doesn’t really believe what she says (until later).”

While working with Shakespeare on Juliet’s new story, “Anne discovers a lot of things about her desires and her agency and her life with her husband and their dynamic,” Wicks said. “Anne tries to help him understand why this new story for Juliet means so much to her.”

Ultimately, “& Juliet” is a story about “second chances,” Sheppard said. “Juliet envisions a place where everyone can get a second chance at love and everyone can be whoever they want to be, and love can take shape in all kinds of different ways. Wouldn’t it be great if the real world was a little more like the world we imagine on stage?”

& JULIET

Presented by Broadway in Boston. At the Citizens Opera House, November 5-17. Tickets from $40. www.BroadwayInBoston.com