Times may be hard, but there is still joy to be found, even after a long week. Sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of emotional release. Welcome to Playbill's Feel Good Friday feature.
It is always emotional when a long-time cast member says goodbye to a production, but when one is as instrumental to a show as Melanie La Barrie is to & Juliet, a special tribute is in order.
After six years with the hit jukebox musical on both sides of the Atlantic, La Barrie is departing the Broadway production to appear in the West End run of Hadestown. To celebrate her remarkable tenure as the heartfelt, yet humorous Nurse Angélique, both the Broadway and West End Juliets, Lorna Courtney and Miriam-Teak Lee, came together to perform a special arrangement of Pink's "Fuckin' Perfect."
The song, which is performed by Angélique to Juliet in the context of the show, is an ode to the imperfect perfection of surviving trauma and mistakes.
In the video, which can we watched below, see La Barrie react in real time to the video as it is shown to her backstage before a performance of the musical. Warning: you'll want to have tissues on hand!
Charity Angél Dawson will join & Juliet in the role of Nurse Angélique beginning January 2, 2024. Dawson succeeds La Barrie, who originated the role both on the West End and Broadway and will play her final performance December 30.
& Juliet opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre November 17, 2022, transferring from its hit West End run. Picking up where Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet ends, when Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway comes to visit him in London, she suggests that the lovestruck teenager's story shouldn't end in tragedy. What follows is a rollercoaster of laugh-inducing rewrites and a heartening journey of self-discovery.
Feel Good Friday: A Teary Lin-Manuel Miranda Watches His Son Sing 'How Far I'll Go'
Have a great weekend, and check back next Friday for another feel good feature.