The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents: Romeo and Juliet, by Ian Lendler and Zack Giallongo

[mrissa]

Review copy provided by First Second Books.

I squeed when I saw this in my mailbox. The first volume, The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents: Macbeth was amaaaaazing. Hilarious. The only Macbeth you’ll ever need. Well, okay, not quite that far. But still: seriously good stuff.

Premise of the series is: the zoo animals perform Shakespeare after hours behind the humans’ backs. This is ridiculous. Yes. It embraces the ridiculous.

Romeo and Juliet is not as fertile ground as Macbeth, particularly when you have apparently decided that murder is all right for a kids’ comic but sex–even marital sex–is not. And somehow the direction of ridiculous with playdates was less hilarious to me than the direction of Macbeth eating everybody. I still enjoyed it, and I’m still looking forward to there being more (please? Titus Andronicus Richard II OH PLEASE TELL ME WHAT RIDICULOUS THING YOU WOULD SUBSTITUTE IN THERE I WANT TO KNOW).

Mostly I enjoyed Juliet being a bear. I like bears. I don’t go around saying I have a Patronus or anything, but bears: good stuff. Juliet-bear: okay, let’s go with that. Romeo-chicken and Juliet-bear. Got it.

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Originally published at Novel Gazing Redux

Comments

[pameladean]

Well, you know, you really need prairie dogs for Romeo and Juliet.

Pl

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Alas, they had them not. Should have hired our friend to consult!

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

Titus would be so awesome, but given that they seem to be hitting the popular canon, I'd go for Hamlet or Richard III.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I already disgrace myself and any companions laughing at the ghost scene at something like 75% of R3 productions, so I welcome this idea.

[pameladean]

R3 is so very over the top, it's hard even to know where Shakespeare thought one should laugh, and drawing the lines is very interesting. Even without zoo animals.

P.