If you were a teen or tween in 1996, you either had a crush on Claire Danes or Leonardo DiCaprio, or both. It was the year the world was introduced to both the Spice Girls and Renton in Trainspotting – a heady year of girl power and grunge. And no film quite captured the crossover of these two genres quite like Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.
You’ll remember One Inch Punch’s ‘Pretty Piece of Flesh’ as viscerally as Gavin Friday’s ‘Angel’. We can't separate the sound of ‘When Doves Cry’ with the star-crossed lovers, or Stina Nordenstam ‘Little Star’ as Juliet excitedly awaits her wedding day. But most memorable is Mercutio’s drag performance of ‘Young Hearts Run Free’, sung by Kym Mazelle.
Honouring this impressionable soundtrack, the Enmore Theatre in Newtown is putting on a night of nostalgic tracks from Des’ree’s ‘Kissing You’ to Everclear’s ‘Local God’. It’ll span grunge, alt-rock, pop and disco with tracks from Garbage, the Cardigans, Butthole Surfers, Radiohead and the Wannadies.
In true R+J theme, don a mask (or make like Paris and wear a full astronaut outfit), dress seductively ’90s – wings, chainmail, Cleopatra get-up – and enjoy a hedonistic recreation of the Capulets’ house party circa 1996.
