
Collin Rugg video screengrab / X
CV NEWS FEED // Justice Ketanji Jackson performed Dec. 14 a walk-on role in the Broadway show “& Juliet,” a musical spin-off of “Romeo and Juliet” featuring a non-binary character who marries Juliet’s ex-fiance.
The show took place at Steven Sondheim Theatre in New York.
Justice Jackson commented in a CBS interview, “It’s a story about female empowerment and women’s ability to do what they want to do, to control their own destiny. I think it’s a wonderful message, and obviously very fun.”
The interview included video clips of her acting and singing in the role written specifically for her.
When the interviewer asked her if she considered what people would say about a SCOTUS justice performing on Broadway, she said, “Well, other justices actually have done somewhat similar things. I just also think it’s very important to remind people that justices are human beings, that we have dreams, and that we are public servants, and we’re not so detached from the people that we serve.”
According to The Hill, Justice Jackson noted in her Harvard University application essay that she wanted to be the “first Black, female Supreme Court justice to appear on a Broadway stage.”
A post on X from Collin Rugg included a video of Justice Jackson’s performance.
According to All Musicals, the plot of the play revolves around Juliet and what she would have done if she did not take her own life. In the play, her best friend, May, is a character with the pronouns he/she/they, played by a man in a pink corset belt with flowers in his hair. At the end of the play, May marries Francois, a character who is engaged to Juliet earlier in the play.
