Kenneth Branagh's season of plays at the Garrick continues with a safe and old-fashioned account of Shakespeare’s great portrait of “star-crossed lovers”.
There are some flashes of wit but it is often slow going and its chief redeeming feature is Lily James as Juliet, radiating a mix of innocence and enchanting vitality.
Opposite her, Games Of Thrones star Richard Madden’s Romeo does not seem youthful enough.
He has a virile energy but it is a one-note performance and there is never much chemistry between the leads, despite their having previously appeared together in Branagh’s film of Cinderella.
'The presence as Juliet’s mother of Marisa Berenson, who graced so many magazine covers in the Seventies, feels like a deliciously unexpected collector’s item'
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Here Branagh shares directorial duties with Rob Ashford and their production conjures up the seductive spirit of Federico Fellini’s films.
Yet there are times when it is curiously drab. One of the more problematic decisions is to have the famous balcony scene configured so that Romeo, rather than gazing up at Juliet from afar, finds himself only a couple of feet below her.
A rich supporting cast includes Derek Jacobi and Meera Syal.
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The choice of 77-year-old Jacobi as twenty-something Romeo’s volatile friend Mercutio is unusual but he is a cane-twirling delight, reminiscent of his finicky character Stuart in TV’s Vicious yet with a dash of debonair eloquence. Syal’s Nurse is best not in her moments of bawdy comedy but when her self-absorbed chattiness gives way to confusion.
Newcomer Samuel Valentine makes a strong impression as the benevolent Friar Laurence and the presence as Juliet’s mother of Marisa Berenson, who graced so many magazine covers in the Seventies, feels like a deliciously unexpected collector’s item.
But this interpretation, which will be broadcast live to cinemas UK-wide on July 7, is not romantic or deeply moving.
Though it is stylish, accessible and illuminated by Lily James, it misses the passionate intensity of the tragedy.
Until August 13, Garrick Theatre (0330 333 4811, branaghtheatre.com)
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