Megyn Kelly is shocked and appalled — nay, outraged! — to learn that a musical that premiered nearly five years ago has LGBTQ+ characters.
The conservative pundit continued to demonstrate her lack of cultural awareness in a recent segment on her YouTube channel, in which she lamented her 12-year-old daughter attending the "new" musical & Juliet, which first debuted in the United Kingdom in 2019.
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After Kelly's daughter was invited to go see the show, Kelly said she "looked it up because I'm not a dope, just to make sure what she was going to." She noted that her daughter "had a great time," but claimed that the 12-year-old then said "it was a little weird."
"She's like, Well there was a lot of trans stuff in it and like trans love and trans kissing. I was like, What?!" she recalled. "It's been a while since I've read Romeo and Juliet, but that's not in there. And even if Romeo were to die, I don't think Juliet would go trans."
via & Juliet Broadway
The official summary for & Juliet describes the musical as "flipping the script on the greatest love story ever told. & Juliet asks: what would happen next if Juliet didn’t end it all over Romeo? Get whisked away on a fabulous journey as she ditches her famous ending for a fresh beginning and a second chance at life and love — her way."
Juliet is not transgender in the show, but there is plenty of queer romance, and even a nonbinary character, May, played by Justin David Sullivan. Kelly mocked Sullivan for a previous promotional video the nonbinary actor did promoting the show, in which they said the musical "celebrates queer love in a way that Broadway has been waiting for."
"I have never seen a non-binary character experience in a Broadway musical before, so just to have that representation on stage is so important," they said, adding, "May's experience just happens to be so close to my own, and I just feel so lucky that I get to tell this story."
Kelly also mocked Sullivan for withdrawing themself from the 2023 Tony Awards over the ceremony's gendered awards categories (which happened over a year ago), while becoming increasingly irate at the inclusion of LGBTQ+ romance.
"This was so in your face," she whined. "This guy who goes by he/she/they refused to be considered for a Tony Award in 2023 because of the 'gendered categories' ... and is just so happy that now we're celebrating queer love which is not at all what I thought, something based on Shakespeare and about Juliet's next chapter was going to be."
The musical is explicitly centered around "Juliet's next chapter," though it is evidently not a chapter that Kelly approves of. Despite admitting to searching the content of the show before letting her daughter see it, the pundit then complained about the information supposedly not being available.
"How about the non-disclosure of any of this in the write-up about the show? Don't we parents get a right to like, make a call?" she said. "You can be sending a much younger child than 12 there. My kid and I have talked about these issues many times, but many haven't. This could be their first exposure to it. It's not up to Broadway to do that."
& Juliet is approved and recommended for ages 8 and up. It's been hailed by many Broadway reviewers as a great show to bring children to.
