Ketanji Brown Jackson has already made history as the first Black woman and first former federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court. And now she’s got another accolade to add to her resume.
The 54-year-old will become the first Supreme Court justice to make her Broadway debut, with a one-night-only walk-on-role in the hit musical comedy & Juliet.
Producers announced the news on Monday, Dec. 9. Jackson will appear in the evening show on Saturday, Dec. 14, and will stick around for a talkback awards with audience members.
It’s a fulfillment of a dream for Jackson, who wrote about her love for theater while applying to Harvard.
“I, a Miami girl from a modest background with an unabashed love of theater, dreamed of one day ascending to the highest court in the land — and I had said so in one of my supplemental application essays,” she recalled in her New York Times best-selling memoir Lovely One, released in September. “I expressed that I wished to attend Harvard as I believed it might help me ‘to fulfill my fantasy of becoming the first Black, female Supreme Court justice to appear on a Broadway stage.’ ”
& Juliet is currently playing at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in New York City.
The musical, —which features a book from David West Read, the Emmy-winning writer from Schitt’s Creek — imagines what would happen if the title heroine from William Shakespeare’s classic romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet would have survived and gotten a second chance at life and love on her own terms. It’s story is set to a sea of Max Martin hits, including those made popular by Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Bon Jovi, Ariana Grande, Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC and Robyn.
The current Broadway company of & Juliet includes Maya Boyd (as Juliet), Tony Award-winner Paulo Szot (as Lance), Alison Luff (as Anne), Drew Gehling (as Shakespeare), Liam Pearce (as Romeo), Michael Iván Carrier (as May), Jeannette Bayardelle (as Angélique) and Nathan Levy (as François).
Completing the cast are Gabe Amato, Daniel Assetta, Reese Britts, Nicholas Cooper, Charli D’Amelio, Jhailyn Paige Farcon, Makai Hernandez, Najah Hetsberger, Joomin Hwang, Khailah Johnson, Elsa Keefe, Alaina Ví Maderal, Daniel J. Maldonado, Alejandro MullerDahlberg, Ava Noble, Cassie Silva, Darien Van Rensalier and Romy Vuksan.
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And while Jackson will for sure be happy to share the stage with all of them, none can compare to a former scene partner she had while she was at Harvard University: Academy Award winner Matt Damon!
While speaking to CBS Sunday Morning on Sunday, Sept. 1, Jackson revealed that she and Damon, 54, were both in the same Harvard drama class and were paired together to do scene together from Waiting For Godot.
“He’s not going to remember this, of course,” she said of Damon, who was a year ahead of her. “The reason why I remember it is because he was already kind of well-known around campus and off campus, so it was kind of exciting to be his scene partner for a particular class.”
Jackson held her own in the scene. “At the end, the professor said, ‘Ketanji, you were very good. Matt, we’ll talk,’ ” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I was better than Matt Damon in a scene.’ ”
for what it’s worth, Damon — who famously did not finish his undergrad at Harvard — did not, in fact, remember working with Jackson. However, the Good Will Hunting star still found the story impressive, telling the Associated Press, “That’s so cool!”
Tickets & Juliet are now on sale.
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