Being among Taylor Swift’s “protégées” (which the likes of Olivia Rodrigo also once proudly declared being), it should come as no surprise that Gracie Abrams would turn to referencing one of the many things Swift has bastardized over the course of her now twenty-year career (if one starts the clock at the release of her self-titled debut album in 2006): Shakespeare. In fact, the inaugural time Taylor Swift appeared on Saturday Night Live in January of 2009 as the musical guest, she was on her first tour of duty for oversimplifying Shakespeare’s work as “Love Story,” her lead single from 2008’s Fearless, was still very much a part of the cultural conversation. Besides, “You Belong With Me” hadn’t yet been released as the third single (and, shortly after, the accompanying video that seemed to lift a certain key communication element from 2000’s Whatever It Takes).
However, by the time Swift returned to the show for a second occasion that year, she seemed to have become more adept at heightening the “drama” of her performances. Case in point, while performing “Untouchable” as her second song of the night, Swift enlisted the “dreamy” effect of dry ice, pink and purple lighting and a pair of ornate chandeliers to dress up the set in the “fairy-tale romance” aura she was particularly cultivating during this era (complete with wearing a ball gown that made her look ready to go to the prom rather than get swept off her feet by a prince). And it’s something that Abrams appeared to have taken a page from for her own “dreamy” and “romantic” performance of “Hit the Wall” and “Here You Come, There You Go” on the Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live (hosted by Inde Navarette). Not just because Abrams went full Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet by embodying both Claire Danes’ and Leonardo DiCaprio’s sartorial style in those roles, but because it was as if she wanted to pay homage to Swift’s notorious “Love Story” lyrics, “Little did I know/That you were Romeo, you were throwin’ pebbles/And my daddy said, ‘Stay away from Juliet’” and “Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone/I’ll be waitin’, all that’s left to do is run/You’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess/It’s a love story, baby, just say yes.”
What’s more, 2009 (during which she appeared, as mentioned, twice on the show, the second appearance as both host and musical guest) wasn’t the only time Swift made the most of the generally “no-frills” SNL stage by transforming it into something more “white girl whimsical.” Though perhaps November 7, 2009 was, in many ways, her most significant appearance, as it addressed the controversy surrounding the VMAs that year. Specifically, when Swift won for Best Female Video (the sole category she was nominated in), only to be infamously interrupted by Kanye West during her acceptance speech. That moment is something she’s keen to address in her opening monologue for that 2009 hosting gig on SNL (incidentally, the only instance of her ever hosting). But perhaps not as keen as she was during her January 10, 2009 performance to prove Shakespeare’s resonance for those with a more reductive outlook on his work.
In fact, Baz Luhrmann, despite taking his own liberties with Shakespeare’s source material, has a far more worthwhile adaptation to offer than Swift (this goes double for her botched understanding of Hamlet’s Ophelia in “The Fate of Ophelia”—not that Luhrmann ever took a stab at that text). To be sure, the cultural impact of his adaptation is still felt in the present, with a director like Emerald Fennell citing Romeo + Juliet as a key influence on how she chose to make Wuthering Heights (aesthetically, musically and in terms of taking a lot [yes, a lot, a lot] of liberties with the source material). And apparently, it’s still felt by Abrams, who, more than anything, probably just wanted to dress up for Halloween since that’s when the episode was filmed. Even so, one could argue that “Hit the Wall” applies, in its way, to Juliet and “Here You Come, There You Go,” in its way, to Romeo. If one were to rely on the kind of loose interpretations of Shakespeare’s characters that Swift does. Which is part of why this performance is more of an homage to her than it is to Shakespeare, or even Danes and DiCaprio. Though, admittedly, Abrams does a bang-up job of channeling both not just with her costuming, but also with the set design.
Indeed, it’s the set design that lets the viewer know right from the start that Abrams is referencing Shakespeare-by-way-of-Luhrmann’s classic, with the same style of fishtank and fish (projections in this case) on display as Abrams stares at it wondrously while dressed as an angel. In other words, it’s the same scene from Romeo + Juliet where the titular characters first encounter one another at a fishtank—or rather, standing on opposite sides of one. And when Abrams walks away from the tank, the full stage is shown to reveal not only the use of Swift’s beloved dry ice (which she also implemented for her SNL performances in 2009 [for “Untouchable”], 2017 [for both “…Ready For It?” and “Call It What You Want”] and 2019 [for “False God”]), but also projected images that make it look as though Abrams-as-Danes-as-Juliet is at that costume party (a.k.a. “masked ball” in the original play) where she meets Romeo. And while she’s dressed as an angel, Romeo opted for an oh so telling “knight in shining armor” costume.
A look that Abrams saves for her second song, along with another nod to Romeo + Juliet’s set design in the form of stage lighting that lends the effect of a pool—this being an allusion to Romeo showing up outside of Juliet’s balcony, where, you guessed it, there’s a pool. Reflecting off of him at times as he’s standing out there plotting his next move, and lending him an ethereal, romantic look. As for Abrams, she opts to incorporate two different components of “Romeo costuming”: a tropical (even though it says “Biarritz” on it) shirt that references Romeo’s usual “uniform” in the film and armored arms that reference his ensemble for the costume party.
However, while all of this is very thorough in terms of “re-creating” Romeo + Juliet for Halloween, the truth of the matter is that Abrams is once again channeling Swift more than anything else in that she made something more elaborate and cinematic (ergo, amplifying the [aspiring] dramatic effect of her music) out of the SNL stage than most performers usually choose to. Something that Swift, during her own few appearances on the show (including for “Lover,” “Call It What You Want” and her ten-minute rendition of “All Too Well”), has also done. And, considering that Abrams is trying to remind the masses of Daughter from Hell’s existence with a forthcoming deluxe edition (which “Here You Come, There You Go” appears on), she could use all the fanfare she can get after the generally lackluster offerings on that record.
+ There are no comments
Add yours