Me and Juliet - Critical Reception and Assessment

Critical Reception and Assessment

Critics' views were neutral to unfavorable. The New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson praised the acting and choreography, but stated, "This is their Valentine to show business, expressed in the form of a show-within-a-show; and it has just about everything except an intelligible story." Herald-Tribune critic Walter Kerr noted that "Rodgers and Hammerstein have come perilously close to writing a show-without-a-show." George Jean Nathan of the Journal American stated that "Hammerstein's book has the effect of hanging idly around waiting for an idea to come to him." Robert Coleman of the Daily Mirror noted, "Having set new high standards for musicals throughout the world, Rodgers and Hammerstein dipped into the lower drawer of their desk for Me and Juliet. It proved a big disappointment for this dyed-in-the-wool R. & H. fan." John Chapman of the Daily News commented, "It is at its most interesting when Jo Mielziner's sets are in motion". According to Steven Suskin in his compilation of Broadway opening night reviews, the seven major New York critics allotted the production no raves, one favorable review, one mixed, four unfavorable, and one pan.

One well-received number was "Keep It Gay", a song which in rehearsal had been assigned to several different performers before ending with Bob. The song was liked in part due to the novelty of its setting: it begins with Bob singing from the light bridge high above the stage; following a blackout the internal play performers take it up on the stage below, and following another blackout, the performers are seen in their workout clothes, at a rehearsal some weeks later. Hammerstein gave credit for the scene to Mielziner, and suggested that it demonstrated one way in which the book had affected the music.

Abbott stated that there were two reasons for what he considered to be the show's failure. The first was Rodgers and Hammerstein's overconfidence; they thought of themselves as Broadway's "Golden Boys" who could do no wrong. The other was the play-within-the-play, which had not been thoroughly thought out by anyone. According to Abbott, Hammerstein remained "positively Sphinx-like" on the subject. At a loss to understand the characters of the play-within-the play, Alton came up with nothing more than routine song-and-dance numbers. During the run, the duo approached choreographer Jerome Robbins and asked him if he could fix the dances. Robbins said that he could, but he would not, as "it would kill Bob Alton". According to Hammerstein biographer Hugh Fordin, " intended contrast between onstage and backstage life was never achieved because the onstage show was so tepid and confusing."

"That's the Way it Happens" was included in the 1996 stage version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1945 movie musical, State Fair. According to David Lewis in his history of the Broadway musical, "The Rodgers and Hammerstein office has, it would appear, given up on Pipe Dream and Juliet ever finding an audience ... so these songs are up for grabs."

Composer and author Ethan Mordden, in his book on the duo's works, wrote of the conceptual difficulties which Rodgers and Hammerstein had with the musical:

was the first of their plays without a powerful sense of destiny, of characters consequentially interconnected. In Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific and The King and I especially, the principals—whether noble or weak, just or impetuous—change each other's lives. Me and Juliet's characters appear to be thrown together by chance and—except for the lovers—will part company unaffected by each other as soon as the show closes. This left Hammerstein with nothing to seek out in his people, and Rodgers with nothing to illustrate.