Romeo and Juliet, Staged by Jagged Little Pill's Diane Paulus and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, to Open A.R.T.'s 2024-25 Season

American Repertory Theater at Harvard University has announced three of the four productions to comprise its 2024-25 subscription season, kicking off with a reunion between Jagged Little Pill collaborators Diane Paulus and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Paulus, a Tony Award winner and A.R.T.'s artistic director, will helm a production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, featuring choreography by Cherkaoui (both earned Tony nominations for their work on Jagged Little Pill in 2020). Performances will run from August 31 through October 6.

"I am personally thrilled to be reuniting with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui on Romeo and Juliet," said Paulus in a statement. "Our partnership on Jagged Little Pill was one of the most exhilarating creative collaborations of my life, and I can’t wait to bring Shakespeare’s iconic play to new life on our stage.”

The season will also feature the world premiere of Ayodele Casel's Diary of a Tap Dancer, directed by Torya Beard. Running from December 12 through January 4, 2025, the piece combines dance, narrative and song to share the story of Casel’s life and to honor the histories and legacies of the extraordinary women tap dancers who came before her. Casel's tap choreography was recently seen on Broadway in the 2022 revival of Funny Girl. 

Kate Hamill will then present her world-premiere adaptation of The Odyssey, directed by Shana Cooper and running from February 8 through March 16, 2025. Hamill is a well-known adapter of literary classics including Sense & Sensibility, Vanity Fair, Dracula and Little Women. In The Odyssey, she turns a contemporary lens on Homer’s epic, reimagining the stories of both Odysseus and his wife, Penelope, and asks how we can learn to embrace healing and forgiveness in order to end cycles of violence and revenge.

A.R.T. is currently presenting its world premiere of Gatsby, a musical adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel (not to be confused with the current Broadway musical The Great Gatsby). For more information on A.R.T.'s upcoming season, click here.