A new, modern-day version of Romeo and Juliet will be staged on Broadway later this year—and Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad will be the famously tragic lovers. Which means that this version of Shakespeare's play will be interracial.
Director David Leveaux told the NY Times, "They could have been any number of different ethnicities...The two actors I wanted to be together producing sparks just happened to be those two and I followed my nose in casting the families." Which then prompted him to "make the Capulets an all-black clan and the Montagues all-white to reflect real life rather than make a comment on race."
Rashad, the daughter of Phylicia Rashad, will be seen on Broadway very soon in The Trip To Bountiful, which also stars Cicely Tyson. She was also nominated for a Tony for her performance in Stick Fly. Bloom, of course, is known for his roles as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings and that guy who isn't Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
