Female dancer on her knees, head tipped up to the sky crying. Male dancer lays on floor. Both in spotlight.

Romeo and Juliet: the pop culture blueprint for star-crossed lovers

Alison McWhinney and Max Westwell in Romeo and Juliet © Laurent Liotardo

12 August 2026

Read 4 mins

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From Baz Luhrmann’s iconic 1996 movie to zombies falling in love with their walking-dead brethren (Warm Bodies, 2013), Shakespeare’s famed Romeo and Juliet, has been splashed across our screens, theatre stages and music lyrics since its creation in 1597.

As English National Ballet returns this autumn with Rudolf Nureyev’s iconic ballet, 50 years after its conception, here’s a roundup of the quintessential Romeo & Juliet pop culture moments.  

The unforgettable Romeo and Juliet (1996) directed by Baz Luhrmann 

It would be remiss if we didn’t include the legendary film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. Reimagined from Verona to Mexico City and Veracruz, this adaptation is sprinkled with Catholic iconography, where guns replace daggers and 90’s streetwear gives way to tight-laced corsets and ruffs.  

With its array of gifted actors, this truly modernist interpretation changed the path for other interpretations of Romeo & Juliet.

Glitter and gold…a high jewellery collection by Van Cleef & Arpels 

Inspired by Shakespeare’s words, Benjamin Millepied for L.A Dance Project, in collaboration with Van Cleef & Arpels, designed the ultimate fine jewellery ode to Romeo & Juliet. Featuring rubies, coloured sapphires, and scenes from the play, the maison echoed the beauty and tragedy of Shakespeare’s work in its collection.  

A standout piece is the ‘Balcone’, a clip made from white gold, rose gold, emeralds, tsavorite garnets and diamonds. It depicts one of the play’s most famous scenes in which Romeo and Juliet declare their love for each other, encased in a setting of precious stones.

From pop to rock, the star-crossed lovers inspire the charts

Becoming the blueprint for pop culture also means inspiring some of the world’s most beloved songs.  

Take Taylor Swift’s Love Story -albeit with a rewritten ending (families reconcile and the couple marry) –this song stole the hearts of an entire generation.

Another iconic song is 1980’s rock bop, Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits. This guitar heavy retelling contrasts the romantic past with a modern reality where one person is left behind.

Verona meets Manhattan?

In West Side Story, Arthur Laurents catapults Shakespeare’s tragedy from Verona to the streets of 1950s New York City. Conceived and adapted for stage by Jerome Robbins, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, the original Broadway production opened in September 1957.  

Swapping the feuding Capulet and Montague families for rival street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, and the beloved couple swapped for New Yorkers Tony and Maria, this production has returned to the stage multiple times and has been adapted for the screen in 2 major blockbuster movies. 

Photo of the rumble segment from West Side Story where Tony stabs Bernardo after he stabs Riff.

Literature meets literature?  

Inspiration for many novels has come from the star-crossed lovers and their tumultuous chronicle of love. One to note is Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses. A young adult dystopian classic where the ‘Noughts’ are second class white citizens and the ‘Crosses’ highly revered black residents who are perceived as the superior race. Blackman focuses on Sephy and Callum’s relationship which is frowned upon by the society and their families. Their forbidden love was also portrayed on stage in Dominic Cooke’s adaptation for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2007.

Brushstrokes and gouache 

Artists have long been drawn to the tragedy of the story, where the beauty of Shakespeare’s words can be translated into brushstrokes. From Frank Dicksee’s Romeo and Juliet (1884) to Mather Brown (1786) depicting Anne Brunton and Joseph Holman as the star-crossed lovers, Romeo & Juliet remains a compelling subject for artists, capturing both the intensity of human emotion and the timeless, universal experience of first love.

Painting of Romeo and Juliet. They are in an embrace wit Juliet's arms around his neck

We’re performing Romeo & Juliet at the Liverpool Empire (15 – 17 Oct), Palace Theatre Manchester (21 – 25 Oct), Mayflower Theatre in Southampton (3 – 5 Dec) and London Coliseum (14 – 24 Jan). Book your tickets now.

 

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