Power ballads and rock classics made famous in the ‘80s by the legendary Pat Benatar provide the pulsating soundtrack to Invincible – The Musical, Bradley Bredeweg’s edgy, exhilarating take on Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet, now getting its World Premiere at The Wallis in Beverly Hills.

Book writer Bredeweg and director Tiffany Nichole Greene have resituated R&J to a post-civil war future that has winners (the Capulets) using police force to keep the still protesting losers (the Montagues) in their place.

Newly elected Chancellor Paris (Brennin Hunt) vows to destroy whatever resistance there remains to his virtually one-man rule, plotting marriage to teenaged Juliet (Kay Sibal) to consolidate his power and prevent Juliet’s widowed mother Madame Capulet (Sharon Leal) from seizing control.

When losing-side teen trio Romeo (Khamary Rose), his bff Mercutio (Aaron Alcaraz), and his other bff (nonbinary Ari Notartomaso as a nonbinary Benvolio) decide to don masks and crash a Capulets-only shindig, romantic sparks fly between you know which pair of star-crossed lovers.

Completing Invincible – The Musical’s cast of principals are Romeo’s mother Madame Montague (a glamorous Dionne Gipson), Friar (Jon Patrick Walker in stoner mode), a more youthful version of Juliet’s nurse renamed Nura (Julia Harriman), and Juliet’s cousin Tybalt (Josh Strobl), aka Chancellor Paris’s secret same-sex squeeze, just one of several b-plot romances Invincible – The Musical has added to the original Shakespeare mix.

If such Pat Benatar hits as “Heartbreaker,” “Invincible,” “Love Is a Battlefield,” “Promises in the Dark,” “Shadows of the Night,” “Treat Me Right,” “We Belong,” and “We Live for Love” have you reliving the ’80s, they’re all here (music and lyrics by Benatar and Neil Giraldo), along with an additional dozen-and-a-half Benatar tracks you might not know so well, among them “Out Of The Ruins,” “One Love,” “Hell Is For Children,” and 2003’s “Brave.”

Invincible – The Musical’s dystopian futuristic police-state setting may not particularly lend itself to the kind of magic Baz Luhrmann made in his screen version of R+J (or any sort of comic relief for that matter), but the young lovers’ forbidden romance still packs a punch. (There’s something about a young Romeo climbing up a ladder to Juliet’s balcony to declare his love-at-first-sight love that can still make romantic hearts flutter, and you too might find yourself wiping away a tear when the young heartthrob later discovers Juliet in a state resembling death.)

With a double-album’s worth of Benatar-Giraldo songs interspersed among spoken scenes about 50% Bredeweg and 50% Shakespeare, the next musical power punch is never far away, nor is the next athletic, high-energy dance sequence, choreographed to spine-tingling effect by Galen Hooks and performed by the most gifted and indefatigable of ensembles: Steven Agdeppa, Alcaraz, Gillian Bozajian, Cameron Field, Sophia Hall, dance captain Nadja Hayes, fight captain Eric Myrick, Ian Joseph Paget, Lyric Rachae, Krystle Rose Simmons, Kelsey Lee Smith, Strobl, Ian Ward, and Kendyl Sayuri Yokoyama, most of whom understudy lead and featured roles. (That the abpve manage to sing with power pipes at full blast is another reason to stand up and cheer when they come out for bows.)

Director Greene keeps things moving at a breakneck pace, and if dialog sequences don’t particularly lend themselves to the kind of deep-digging dramatic turns you might get with the Shakespeare original, vocally speaking there’s not a less than power-punching performance delivered by Invincible – The Musical’s charismatic cast.

Newcomers Rose and Sibal reveal so much future-star potential, you too might find yourself hoping that book writer Bredeweg will find a way to keep them both alive at the end.

Dynamic diva duo Sharon Leal and Dionne Gipson are their usual stunning selves, Hunt gives the dastardly Paris rock star charisma, and Notartomaso and Alcaraz make for a couple of terrific Romeo besties while proving that love knows no gender.

Harriman’s warm and winning Nura, Walker’s drolly toking Friar, and Strobl’s sexy Tybalt are featured cast winners, the latter giving Paris plenty of reason to get hot and heavy over.

No Shakespeare tragedy would be complete without stage combat, and Invincible – The Musical is no exception, Steve Rankin’s scarily realistic fight choreography merging with Hooks’ dance moves to pulse-pounding effect.

Music director Jesse Vargas’s vocal arrangements make ensemble harmonies sound all the richer, and Giraldo and Vargas’s orchestrations are pretty darned spectacular when performed by Invincible – The Musical’s live band conducted by keyboardist David Saul Lee, with Cricket Myers’ sound design making all of the above all the crisper and clearer.

Last but not least, scenic designer Arnel Sancianco, projection designer Yee Eun Nam, costume designer Lena Sands, and lighting designer Elizabeth Harper have joined creative forces to give Invincible – The Musical a thrillingly industrial look lit up with Vegas flash.

Additional program credits are too numerous to list in their entirety, but I’d be remiss not to mention production stage manager Christine Catti, assistant stage managers Morgan Zupanski and Ben Shipley, and associate choreographer Macy Swaim.

Casting is by The Telsey Office, Ryan Bernard Tymensky, CSA. Invincible – The Musical features arrangements by Vargas and Giraldo.

Unlike Broadway’s current & Juliet, which imagines a post-Romeo life for its title character and features a bubble-gum/dance-club array of songs made famous by Back Street Boys, *NSYNC, Britney Spears, and the like, the harder-edged Invincible – The Musical sticks closer to the original, and no one does classic rock better than Pat Benatar.

Simply put, Benatar and R&J add up to one electrifying mix.

Bram Goldsmith Theater, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills.
www.thewallis.org

–Steven Stanley
December 2, 2022
Photos: Sean Daniels/DVR PRODUCTIONS, Jamie Pham Photography

Tags: Bradley Bredeweg, Los Angeles Theater Review, Neil Giraldo, Pat Benatar, The Wallis Annenberg Center For The Arts, William Shakespeare