Heartstopper’s Kit Connor praised as a ‘knockout’ in first reviews of Broadway’s Romeo and Juliet

Heartstopper’s Kit Connor has been lauded as the “standout” performer in the first reviews of Sam Gold’s new Romeo and Juliet adaptation on Broadway.

After six months of (occasionally shirtless) teasing, the latest incarnation of Shakespeare’s magnum opus has landed on stage at Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theatre.

Heartstopper favourite Kit Connor and The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ Rachel Zegler play the doomed titular lovers in the new Gen-Z style adaptation, which comes with pop bangers courtesy of Taylor Swift’s collaborator, Jack Antonoff.

While the production as a whole appears to have divided critics – some feel it’s almost too much fun considering the story’s notorious ending, and others believe it plays too much into the hands of the TikTok crowd – Connor’s performance is garnering universal acclaim.

Well, almost.

Writing in The Telegraph, critic Diane Snyder suggested that Connor’s performance – despite it being his Broadway debut – signals that he could have “a stunning stage career ahead of him”.

“The highlight of this buoyant, pared-down, theatre-in-the-round production playing at Broadway’s intimate Circle in the Square is the exuberant performance of rising British star Kit Connor,” Snyder writes, adding that he’s a “knockout”.

“At 20, the young actor… captures the beauty of the language and embodies all of the enthusiasm of teenage love, exciting the youthful, largely female audience, and even some of us older folks.”

One such moment that is “exciting” audiences already is a scene in which Connor plants a pull-up kiss on his co-star, Zegler. The actress is lying in a bed hoisted above the stage, with Connor heaving himself into the air to give her a kiss.

According to reviewer David Rooney, writing in The Hollywood Reporter, the scene elicits a “squeal” from the largely queer audience.

Complimenting Connor specifically, Rooney declares the actor as the “standout” of the show, as he “invests Romeo with such innocence, impetuousness, romantic ecstasy and lacerating sorrow he breaks your heart”.

Writing in The Guardian, critic Adrian Horton praised Connor in an otherwise middling review, writing that his take on Romeo centres on “amiable laddishness, more soft-hearted, hot-blooded brawn than underdeveloped brain”.

“He is the only cast member who demonstrated a natural grasp on the tricky rhythm of Shakespeare,” writes Horton, adding that she “palpably relaxed whenever he began to speak, so much better does the dialogue sound from his mouth: intentional, loaded, somewhere never obtuse”.

The New York Times writer Jesse Green gives similar props to the young star, writing that Connor “needs no help in keeping and maintaining the emotional temperature, easily enlarging the tenderness and obliviousness of his Nick on Heartstopper to fit the stage”.

While most critics are raving over Connor’s turn as Romeo, it’s impossible to impress all.

In another lukewarm review, Variety’s critic Trish Deitch bashed the show for “missing a heart”, and criticised Connor for bringing the same energy he possesses as Nick in Heartstopper to his role as Romeo.

In Deitch’s words, “he’s a goofy puppy”.

“When the s**t hits the fan, though — when his best friend, Mercutio (Gabby Beans), is murdered by Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt (Tommy Dorfman) — Connor doesn’t register the pain of the loss, but stands dumbly on the stage,” the review reads.

“When he kills Tybalt in revenge, the moment is empty of real feeling. In the moments after that — when he’s exiled and so must leave his love; when he discovers Juliet is dead; etc. — there is no heartbreak at all. There’s not a wet eye in the house.”

Romeo and Juliet is playing at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York until 16 February 2025.

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