#le balcon

Jean-Luc Masbou

Source: DGX (2dgalleries)

French: 10/10, classic, subtle, and the most romantic. Juliette’s WTF expression when she hears Roméo is perfect and meme-worthy. I also like how aggressively smooth the tease is—Roméo remaining under the balcony and then just walking out normally at the third line of his verse. You’re not fooling anyone, Roméo. I also like how at one point Roméo raises his hand as if to interrupt, but then decides against it (hello, Shakespeare Romeo! So good to see you). And then Juliette is just 🥰 over him, ha #same

English: 0/10. No tease, but worst of all, they begin the song already on the balcony AND with dialogue together, for no good reason!!! Once again: Shame and dishonor on this production. Idaho RetJ has a pretty low bar to clear on that front.

Russian: 8/10, cute as all hell. Russian Juliette at first is mostly just curious, looking around for the voice and HOLY SHIT freakin’ Russian Romeo just leaps out of freakin’ nowhere and she is just “eep!” and just hides behind her balcony railing like a startled cat. Incredible.

Hungarian: 99.99999/10, Rómeó straight-up LITERALLY teases her. I am dead. Júlia had ovaries of steel to have withstood that with just a rueful laugh. That said, I’m a little disappointed that he didn’t stay purposefully hidden like the others for the three lines; that would be so in line with Hungarian Rómeó he’s such a troll. Understandable, though, because of the non-balcony set up they have.

Austrian: 9/10. Still one of the best and most obvious teases, very faithful to the French. Freakin’ Austrian Romeo purposefully hides away from Julia while she is actively looking for him and then the way he charges upstage and soars on the (changed) high notes in declaration…YES. 100000 points to Gryffindor.

Mexican: 5/10, pretty much no tease. Romeo is exposed along the wall and has to prepare himself to even speak to Julieta, poor baby. Unfortunately the editing doesn’t show Julieta’s initial reaction, but she does look so damn overjoyed, d’aww. I forgive it (also the translation is so, so close. Painfully slow tempo, though).

Revival: 7/10. Roméo starting stage right and then scurrying over to the balcony gives such “Don’t let her see me don’t let her see me run run run!!” vibes, I’m crying. That said, Juliette isn’t even surprised here. She hears him and it’s all, “Oh, love of my life’s here, aw, fiddlesticks, my hair’s a mess, lemme fix it.” -.- I know she has limited room to react compared to original Juliette, but c’mon.

Takarazuka: 4/10, no tease either. Takarazuka Romeo just climbs directly (with stairs!!! I swear these Romeos just get lazier with each production). Takarazuka Juliette’s :O is super cute, though, so anime, so points for that. C’mon, y’all.

Italian: 5/10. Romeo opted for the Freudian pillar. -.- I…suppose that can be considered a tease. Either way, this is really borderline between hilariously fun and hilariously awful. The rest of the Balcony was solid, though, minus the unnecessary Shakespeare. (Also, rewatching it, they actually framed Romeo’s verse as a monologue that Giulietta doesn’t hear until almost the very end. Nope. Downgraded for that).

Toho: 5/10. No tease, but we do get Black!Romeo looking adorably 🥰 when Black!Juliette says his name. He hesitates for a moment before climbing the balcony railing à la French (finally!). Juliette is also :O though not as adorable as Takarazuka R&J. So a little extra bump for the cute reactions.