‘It’s about second chances’ – How the producer of Schitt’s Creek and the writer of Baby One More Time teamed up to give Juliet a life beyond Romeo

I f we were to play a game of “Tell me you’re a millennial without telling me you’re a millennial”, I could point to my deep love for both the Baz Luhrmann movie William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (released the year I did my Junior Cert) and Britney Spears’ hit song Baby One More Time (released the year I did my Leaving). So, to see both of them brought together in stage musical & Juliet is the kind of dream mash-up that makes my millennial heart soar. “There were so many songs that in workshops and rehearsals we experimented with, dropped in and out,” the musical’s creator, David West Read, says.

“But there were some that stayed from the beginning. I think Juliet singing Baby One More Time was always an anchor because that’s such an iconic song.”.