“& Juliet” soon transferred to the West End but struggled to hit its stride; the London run was disrupted by COVID and closed without turning a profit. On Broadway, “& Juliet” found new life when it opened in 2022. He came up with Juliet, one-half of the star-crossed lovers from “Romeo and Juliet,” after noticing that many of Martin’s songs were about young love and heartbreak. “& Juliet” is a first for many; Sheppard as a Broadway director, Read as a musical writer, and Martin as a stage producer. “It would be easy to give people the wrong idea — that this was a modern ‘Romeo and Juliet’ with pop songs.