If you’re trying to decide whether to take your kid to Romeo & Zooliet, the new St. Louis Shakespeare Festival production that remixes the Bard with the Saint Louis Zoo, you have just one big thing to ponder:
Do you want your kid to get Shakespeare? To get that, properly done, his plays are a hoot? That they’ve inspired countless plot lines in pop culture today, and still resonate even when performed by, yes, zoo animal puppets?
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If the answer is yes, get thee to Historic Hill. This goofy, age-appropriate lark packs in a ton of actual Shakespeare, thanks to local playwright Jennifer Joan Thompson’s smart script, which integrates wonderful specificity about both animals and St. Louis. The slow-moving Father John, whose failure to get a message to Juliet dooms our star-crossed lovers, is, hilariously, a tortoise. At another point, Friar Laurence explains to a heartsick Romeo why a prairie dog can’t love a grizzly bear: “She lives in Grizzly Ridge. You live in Schnucks Family Plaza. You’re worlds apart!” Now that’s a good St. Louis joke.
The joy of this production is watching how Thompson and director Tom Ridgely (also producing artistic director of St. Louis Shakespeare Festival) adapt the classic tragedy to depict herbivores warring with carnivores—all without blood being shed or any permanent loss. My 6-year-old loved the story. My 9-year-old loved how they’d taken the plot she knows from West Side Story and made it track for “little kids.” Instead of marriage, you get a play date; instead of death, you get (spoiler alert) hibernation. And when it’s time for Mercutio to get stuck with a sword, he gets his bushy red panda tail shaved instead. (My 6-year-old is still laughing about that: “They shaved his butt!”)
Last night, the show’s world premiere, we had to sit through an hour-plus rain delay before the play kicked off, and so a production designed to wrap up by 9:05 p.m. instead stretched past 10. But my kids were into it through the end. They loved getting to see the zoo after-hours (cutting through the sea lion tunnel on our way to the theatre felt very Night at the Museum) and were captivated by the rustic theatre carved into the middle of the grounds they’ve visited so many times, as if the animals themselves had built it. If the Muny’s Frozen—playing just a mile away in the same park—is a well-oiled machine perfectly calibrated to awe theatrical little girls, Romeo & Zooliet offers the low-key fun of a good Muppets skit, with clever puppets by Michael Curry Designs and a friendly intimacy.
Walking out of the zoo, tired but happy, my kids and I talked about Shakespeare’s staying power, about the changes from the original to the Sharks and the Jets to Grizzly Ridge. And as we drove home, I only vaguely noticed the song on the radio, but my 6-year-old immediately knew that Taylor Swift was singing about the characters we just saw. (“Little did I know/That you were Romeo, you were throwin’ pebbles/And my daddy said, ‘Stay away from Juliet.’”) “This is the perfect song for tonight,” she pronounced. She’s learning Shakespeare—and she got a little shaved butt humor thrown in there, too.
If you go: It might be wise to explain the play-within-a-play concept to younger kids before you get there. My younger one didn’t really get it, though they loved the asides from the penguins and puffins that made up the faux audience.
Beware the weather: St. Louis Shakespeare Festival really wants the show to go on, and even long rain delays won’t result in refunds. Read up on the production’s website for details on when they’ll call it (it won’t be until at least 8:30 p.m.).
What about the logistics? Extremely family-friendly. The relatively small theatre means parking is a snap, and while there’s a walk from the lot to the stage, you’re in the zoo: Kids will love it.
What about all those tiers? Yes, tickets are divided into five tiers, but you shouldn’t worry too much about them. The setup is intimate enough that every seat is pretty good. That said, more expensive tiers come with free parking and vouchers for snacks, which everyone knows are half the reason kids want to go anywhere.
The one and only caveat: The fifth tier is definitely a step down. You’ll be sitting on grass, not chairs. That may actually be better for overly energetic littles, but likely a poor choice for anyone who wants to actually follow the show. And bring a tarp on rainy days.
How young is too young? Toddlers aren’t going to follow this show—but a 5-year-old (or older) with just a bit of pre-show prep will likely find a lot to enjoy. The script includes a few jokes about how they have to keep the show to 80 minutes, and that commitment should be applauded by any parent who’s ever been stuck in a too-long movie with a restless first grader.
