ROMEO & ZOOLIET
A WILD NEW PLAY
Performances begin Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Performances through Sunday, August 17, 2025
At the Saint Louis Zoo (1 Government Drive St. Louis, MO 63110)
The St. Louis Shakespeare Festival (Tom Ridgely, Producing Artistic Director) presents the world premiere of Romeo & Zooliet, a “groundbreaking” collaboration with the Saint Louis Zoo. Featuring “stunningly gorgeous” puppets by Michael Curry Design (Broadway’s The Lion King and Frozen, plus Olympic and Super Bowl Ceremonies), this is a “wickedly smart” reimagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
The production marks the first collaboration between a major zoo and theater company, and the first full-scale theatrical presentation inside a zoo. It imagines that, after the keepers go home for the night, the animals sneak out and mount elaborate productions of Shakespeare for each other on a crude recreation of his stage that they render ‘The Glowb’. The Capulets are carnivores, and the Montagues are herbivores; Juliet is a grizzly cub, and Romeo a prairie dog. Their forbidden friendship is now the 90 minutes’ traffic of that stage.
The play is adapted from the graphic novel The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Romeo and Juliet by Ian Lendler and Zack Giallongo. Written by Jennifer Joan Thompson, the creative team includes direction by Drama Desk nominee Tom Ridgely, composition by Jeffrey “JQ” Qaiyum, scenic design by Scott Neale, costume design by Raquel Adorno, lighting design by Jesse Klug, sound design by Stephen Ptacek, and choreography by Sam Gaitsch.
The complete cast includes Bryce Cleveland, Jeff Cummings, Rae Davis, Ricki Franklin, Daisy Held, Charlie Mathis, Genevieve Mazzoni, Jordan Moore, Rian Amirikal Page, Jacob Schmidt, Olivia Scicolone, Ryan Omar Stack, Stophia Stogsdill, and Nisi Sturgis.
Romeo & Zooliet is produced in partnership with Henry Warshaw Broadway Shows and Blank Slate.