Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy

Before its premiere at the Manchester Opera House in England, the hit musical & Juliet was on Joey Fatone’s radar. Two of the musical’s producers, Theresa Steele Page and Tim Headington, mentioned the idea during its creation stage and before they knew it, it was being performed on London’s West End. Fatone’s manager took his family to see the show, and his daughter immediately recognized how perfect Fatone would be for the part of Lance.

& Juliet made its North American debut in Toronto three years later, where it broke box office records and played to standing-room-only audiences before heading to Broadway. It took hardly any convincing from Page and Headington to add Fatone to the cast, and he first took the stage as Lance in 2025.

The Tony-nominated musical flips the script on the greatest love story ever told and asks: what would happen if Juliet didn’t end it all over Romeo? The story comes to life with larger-than-life laughs and songs that shaped the hearts of popular culture.

Juliet’s reimagined story is told through the anthems created by legendary producer Max Martin, who has been an integral part of Fatone’s career. He said Martin has been the same calm and collected person he’s always known, and has always found a similarity in their work ethic. With songs such as “Oops!... I Did It Again”, “Since U Been Gone” and “It’s Gonna Be Me” as the soundtrack to the story, it demonstrates just how impactful Martin’s career has been to the music industry.

“It’s amazing the way he’s able to write these songs and knows what melodically fits, and what it would sound like to make it fun and to make it pleasant to everyone’s ears,” Fatone said. “He’s not the type of person that listens to other things and goes, ‘I need to copy that.’ He just does his own thing.”

The songs are also reimagined, including a touching rendition of Backstreet Boys “Shape of My Heart” performed by Fatone. This rendition has sparked a lot of conversations with audience members after the show, who may have interpreted it one way for the last two decades and have now experienced it in an entirely different way.

“It's very heartwarming,” he said. “It's a really cool take on it. For people that have been afraid to come out and talk to their parents or their family about certain things, this is a good show to see about it. It's one of those ‘it's going to be all right, no matter what the outcome is’ in the sense of whether parents are going to love you or not.”

Witnessing an audience’s real-time emotions is the most rewarding aspect for him. Just last week, watching a mother and daughter in the front row sing and dance like no one else was in the room was a sweet moment for him.

Fatone’s introduction to Broadway was in 2002 as the lead role of Mark Cohen in Rent. That role taught him everything that he still implements on stage today: breath control, pacing and making sure every audience gets to see his best performance. He credits performers such as Michael James Scott, who performed the role of the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin musical nearly 4,000 times over the span of 12 years, as a testament to the commitment performers bring to the stage every night.

“You want to give 110%, but you're doing eight shows a week,” he said. “It's a grind. People don't realize what this grind is for some artists out there that try to do this or want to do this. It’s doing eight shows a week; the same exact show every day. It does not really change, unless you're doing improv. It's like Groundhog Day.”

The show can be a challenge but in the best way. Another exciting challenge for this role is that it was Fatone’s first time playing the role of a father. It was not so much a farewell to his youth but an introduction to his everyday life. Some of his castmates are around the same age as his own children, with some of them showcasing their talents on Broadway for the first time.

“It is truly amazing to see these kids, these peers, shine and grow,” he said. “I love that part of it.”

After doing a few runs of & Juliet on Broadway, Fatone has since been part of the touring ensemble, including an upcoming run at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. It is a storyline, and a character, that he is enjoying immensely.

Tickets for & Juliet’s upcoming performances, including Chicago, can be found here.