Richard Armitage to Narrate Romeo & Juliet: A Novel

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This is almost a dream come true. I’ll  get to the almost later. I’ll just say it’s a variation on a dream.

Announced by David Hewson – co-author of Hamlet: A Novel, narrated by Richard Armitage: here

We knew there was a new Richard Armitage audiobook in the works. And @RCArmitage shared a few  R & J lines with Audible.

Romeo and Juliet is not my favorite play by Shakespeare, but I loved the way A.J.Hartley and David Hewson novelized Hamlet and Macbeth,  so I think this will be fun. And having it read by Richard Armitage – well, what could be better? (LOL already thinking  of him as Juliet and the Nurse)

I’m just sorry that A.J. Hartley won’t be involved – because A.J. Hartley. And just a little sorry it isn’t  a different play – but happy as hell it isn’t more Dickens.

So yes, Romeo and Juliet by David Hewson, narrated by Richard Armitage, a variation on a dream – come true.

It’s been one of those days.

33 thoughts on “Richard Armitage to Narrate Romeo & Juliet: A Novel”

  1. Huzzah!

    It’s a natural next choice for those novelizations, although as I grow older I know few women in their right minds who don’t choose Paris over Romeo. Whose got time for all that mooning about?

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    • I’ll just edit it. The authors had joked before about doing Othello with Idris Elba narrating. I thught their other two were really good. Alan Cummings narrated the Macbeth.

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  3. Have been waiting for this announcement too. Already made a pre-order. Looking forward to the release.
    There will be ‘Brain on Fire’ premiere in Toronto in September also. Yes, we will be very busy for the next 4 months.

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  6. good news, i needed something to look forward to, and there is nothing better than his voice narrating. Double good because it is not the original as not my favourite play either, this should be interesting and surprising. Very much looking forward to it, at least the year will end hopefully on a good thing.

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      • yes in the ballet they meet each other before the end, briefly but they do, it’s much more emotional. The opera is divine, they have a whole scene together before they pass and they remember, musically as well, their happiest moment together. I love that

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        • Maybe I missed it or snoozed, but my companion and I both agreed that the scene where Juliet awakes to find Romeo dead never happened. But I did like the ballet. I have not seen the opera, and probably won’t.

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          • i never managed to warm to the play, The Luhrmann was the only one i enjoyed and connected with. And the older i get the less i am interested in it, i recently saw it on stage again and although i enjoyed the performance overall i don’t feel the need to see it ever again. On the other hand Hamlet… ahhh the more i see, the more i want 🙂

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            • One problem I have with the play – and it’s not the play’s fault – is that it’s been done to death in every conceivable, variation – so it’s become hackneyed as a plot. I actually like West Side Story better. It makes more sense. There’s very little interesting or clever dialogue – it’s not got the wit of some of the comedies -and it’s a very odd love story for modern times. I’m hoping the author slants it away from a “tragic love story.”

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              • Same here, and i think we can bank on that. I get the sense from that description that there will be much focus on Juliet and the way she changes with the pressure of life which were great for those times. It’s been the slant by the way in both ballet and opera and maybe in may ways in Shakespeare too but maybe it will be more pronounce here. We’ll have to wait and see i guess, i am a bit anxious because i just think the play itself has much less potential than Macbeth and Hamlet, which are 2 of my very favourites in the original too anyway.

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              • i don’t know it as intimately yet, but looking forward to doing so over next 1-2 years as Ralph Fiennes will do it on stage and unless something happens to me i plan to be there for sure and see it several times!

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              • Lucky you – but a long time to wait. Harold Bloom had some insightful things to say about Cleopatra. Be sure to read the stage directions carefully. Who is playing C? Hope it comes to digital at some point.

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  7. I’m really, really looking forward to this one. I enjoyed the adaptation of Hamlet, and I have high hopes for this as well. Hopefully, it can live up to my expectations.
    I’ve never seen R&J on screen – only as a ballet – and as far as plays go, I much prefer Macbeth, but I’m curious about the new angle and want to give it a try, because Hamlet, Prince of Denmark was such a good story.
    I studied R&J, Julius Caesar and Macbeth in high school, and Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream came later as a sort of self study, but I much prefer Macbeth. Macbeth appeals more to any generation somehow. I don’t know if I can relate to young love 😉
    And…guess what…Romeo & Juliet is released on my birthday – What a treat 🙂

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