© John Ross RB 'Romeo and Juliet' reviews 'Romeo and Juliet' reviews Rojo in reviews Acosta in reviews recent RB reviews more Jane Simpson reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

One of Rojo's hallmarks is the way she changes her approach all the time: she's not the sort who sets out her Giselle or Odette at her debut and spends the rest of her career deepening and polishing the same interpretation. There have been evenings when she's given us something of a bumpy ride, but when she gets it right she's one of the most exciting dramatic dancers I've ever known. My only reservation on this occasion was that, although her first act Juliet and her third act Juliet were both richly characterised, the change from one to the other didn't entirely convince. I loved the way the shy girl of the opening scenes blossomed as she discovered her inner minx, enjoying the effect she had on Romeo whilst still slightly frightened of it; and I was deeply impressed by the passion she unleashed at the beginning of the last act: if she could just provide some more obvious link between the two I'd be very happy indeed.
 

Acosta was making his debut as Romeo, but being Acosta there was nothing remotely tentative about it: he looked like a man completely on top of both the technique and the drama, with only an oddly low-key death scene needing a bit more work. I loved the way his Romeo slipped from confident, sexy young aristocrat to awkward, love-struck boy, and these days he can make us know what he's thinking or feeling just by standing still. We've heard enough from earlier dancers to know that it's a killer of a role, but in the second act Acosta looked as if he wished MacMillan had given him even more to do, and he had enough energy left over to give a frighteningly intense account of his duel with Tybalt .

Tybalt was Thiago Soares, a convincing and subtle villain. I also greatly admired Gary Avis as the Prince of Verona, eyes flashing as he read the riot act to his turbulent citizens, and Martin Harvey, cast against type, made the leader of the Mandolin dancers less gymnastic than usual - a good thing, for my taste.

The whole company works hard, sometimes too obviously so in the market scenes, but I'm afraid they can't completely disguise the tedium of some of this production, most especially the endless cavorting of those MacMillan stereotypes, the tarts-with-hearts.