NEW YORK, NY.- On a morning in mid-August, a breeze stirred Central Parks midsummer leaves. Children skipped, dogs lolloped, a bunny peeked out from a hedge near the Great Lawn while a nearby saxophone ruined Isnt She Lovely. It was a very nice day to fall in love.
The actors Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler were there, hiking up to Belvedere Castle and then down to the Shakespeare Garden. Connor, 20, and Zegler, 23, dont plan to fall in love. But the next day, at rehearsal, in Brooklyn they would discover how to make the characters they play fall desperately, terribly in love.
As the stars of the Romeo + Juliet that opens on Broadway on Oct. 24, they will die for love, they will die for each other, eight times a week. Both are making their Broadway debuts and both have the not exactly enviable task of making a 16th-century play with (apologies for centuries-old spoilers) a famously grim ending feel breath-catchingly new and vital.
Daunting? Not at all.
It should be fun, Connor said, not without some anxiety. Zegler gave him a sardonic look. It will be fun, he said.
Connor, a British star of the Netflix teen romance Heartstopper, and Zegler, an American who made a thrilling film debut in Steven Spielbergs West Side Story, had never met until March, shortly after they each agreed to star in the revival, dreamed up by Tony-winning director Sam Gold, with music by Jack Antonoff. They had been offered the roles separately, without the benefit of a chemistry read. That spring day, Gold brought them to Circle in the Square Theater, where previews will start Sept. 26, then bought them cups of coffee at the Cosmic Diner.
Chemistry, Gold said, speaking now during a break rehearsal, is something a director cant predict. Man, if I could guess that, Id be more successful than I am, he said. Its hard. I have failed at that before.
If Gold had failed again, if the March meeting had sputtered, they all might have gone their separate ways. It was scary, when we first met, Connor said. He recalled hurrying in a few minutes late. When youre meeting a romantic interest, you have to keep your fingers crossed because you just cant fake it. And when you do the greatest love story of all time
Oh, yeah, Zegler said, completing the sentence. We should probably have chemistry.
Happily they did. Gold recalled an immediate effervescence, a sparkle under the diners punishing lights. They could have been scared, tentative, guarded, Gold said. But it just felt super easy.
That was how it felt to Zegler and Connor, too an instantaneous comfort, a liking. On first meeting, I was like, oh, well be fine, Zegler said.
This ease was not a surprise to the actors who have played Connors and Zeglers love interests in past projects.
Joe Locke, a Heartstopper co-star, praised Connors openness and vulnerability. Kit made everything so easy, he said, adding, Its hard not to fall in love with him, clarifying that this love was friendly rather than romantic.
Tom Blyth, Zeglers co-star in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, described a similar connection. It was very easy for us to portray love, he said. Rachel has an ingénue thing about her, but shes not just an ingénue. Shes wise beyond her years.
After their meet-cute at the diner, Zegler and Connor met again for a half day, in suburban New Jersey, to shoot a teaser trailer for the show, a moody music video, and then months later in London for a photo shoot, followed by a reading of the play. Gold joined them via a video chat, and he liked what he saw. The two of them were off book, falling in love in this conference room, he said. It was as if they started floating above their chairs, it was so good.
But competing movie shoots made any other hangouts impossible, so this morning, in Central Park, was their first chance to really get to know each other. Zegler had arrived early, as is her way, in matching Thom Browne separates and heeled loafers, which were not perhaps designed for the parks more rustic paths. Connor, a few minutes late, was in wide-legged jeans and a white shirt, with ripped shoulders.
Yeah, I ripped them myself, Connor bantered. On the way here. So nervous. Then he kidded Zegler for her rabbit-shaped purse. I find that quite alarming, he said. I dont like it at all.
Dont be weird, Zegler said.
She had flown in the day before from Los Angeles; hed arrived two days prior from London. He claimed not to feel jet lag. She did. She knew the park well, having often visited it when she was growing up in New Jersey. Hed been once and hadnt cared for it too curated, too crowded. They headed up to the castle, a fantastical former meteorology station. Its very Disney, Connor said. I love America.
In the Shakespeare Garden, Connor pointed out Ophelias flowers. Zegler led them onto a path that accidentally trespassed on the construction site for the Delacorte Theater. Suddenly, a helicopter thwapped overhead.
Kit, they know youre here, Zegler said.
They follow me everywhere, Connor fake-sighed.
Together, the actors seemed more like longtime friends than brand-new ones, with an energy more akin to big sister and little brother than star-crossed lovers. With luck and the hard work of rehearsal, that energy would change. They had some trepidation (Zegler: I hope I dont let him down), but mostly they trusted the script, the process, each other.
I can joke with you, which is nice, Zegler said to Connor. If I cant joke with you, how are we going to fall in love every night to the point that makes us suicidal?
Its really important that the two of us have trust and intimacy, Connor added. Its nice that we have a level of safety.
Safety was a good thing. Both were suffering from some degree of Shakespeare-induced impostor syndrome. Im not actually meant to be here, Zegler said. I am meant to be doing my high school production of Shrek until I die.
Connor, whose only previous flirtation with Shakespeare was an extremely minor part in the play within a play in Hamlet, felt the same. You feel a sense of, Am I cut out for this? Connor said. And in an intimate theater like Circle in the Square, which plays mostly in the round, there is nowhere for an actor to hide.
But that fear has an upside. It would give their performance a newness, a freshness. In casting the play, Gold had sought actors, he said, who could make the audience feel the first-timeness of their love story. Its really important that this feels like these are kids who have never experienced before, the things theyre experiencing. (He joked that working with actors this young is getting me out of my midlife crisis.)
Of course, Zegler and Connor, have experienced these things before, in performance and in life. Maria of West Side Story is modeled on Juliet, and Lucy of Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has a lot of the character in her too. Nick on Heartstopper is a version of a Romeo. And each is young enough to recall, vividly, the intensity of real first love.
First love is rough, Connor said.
Its like a rite of passage, Zegler added.
These feelings, they were world ending.
Really.
They dont expect to feel anything quite as intense in rehearsal or performance. If feelings do arise, each has an outlet songwriting for her, poetry for him. (Locke had confirmed this: Hes the most textbook Romeo. He writes poems, for Gods sake.) And if their emotions overflow those containers, well, they can just put that into their performances.
If you have a bit of spillover, save it for the next night, Connor said.
Spillover is good for the yearning, said Zegler.
Connor misheard yearning as urinating, which provoked general laughter.
So for now, there was no spillover, no tragedy, no sorrow, sweet or sour just a lot of affectionate ribbing, mostly from Zegler. When Connor mentioned a book hed recently read, she lightly trolled him, You read? Wow. There was more teasing about his haircut and his shirt. Connor took it in good humor.
After the castle and the Shakespeare Garden and the trespassing, Zegler and Connor wended their way down to the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater, clowning on the offered play, a puppet show about a cow. They were buoyant, breezy, ready to begin the work of falling in love. Maybe this time it would end well for Juliet and Romeo, they joked.
Thank God we dont die at the end, Connor said.
Thank God we have a happy ending, said Zegler.
Thats what sets our production aside, Connor said.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.