Watch This Black Queer Retelling of 'Romeo & Juliet' In Ballroom Style — It's Going Viral & We're Obsessed

I am entirely and utterly obsessed with this Tiktok my partner sent me last night and have now made it a big ole slice of my personality.

Retellings are cool, right? But sometimes they don't hit well. They aren't as imaginative as they could be and end up making me crave the original more than being immersed in a new iteration of it.

This time around I am more than immersed. I've taken my chair into the ocean, strapped myself to it, and am letting the waves cover me. I am feeling all of these feelings and the musical is still in the very early starting stages of being created.

Justen Ross, a multidisciplinary artist, is working on something wildly special. A musical that will "operate as a ballroom remix of romeo + juliet." A sneak peek of the work in development has been making its rounds on Tiktok. The video currently has over 500K views and features a scene and song from the musical.

We see Justen and another wildly talented babe, N'yomi Stewart, turning what looks like a reading/rehearsal of the musical in development, into one hell of a performance.

As the music plays (ty is tagged in the clip as part of music production) Justen and N'yomi perform and vogue to the beat. Others in the room—who I am assuming are the other current incredible members of the cast—smile, shimmy, laugh, and encourage them both through the performance.

I'm excited for this musical because Broadway has always been an inherently queer space, but that doesn't mean that queer stories have constantly made their way to the stage—specifically Black queer stories. Black queer folks have spent so much time adoring Broadway and performing in productions that we've come to love so intensely, but we rarely get to put our stories and our ideas—with casts that look like us and songs that sound like our surroundings—onto that same stage.

A Strange Loop comes to mind when thinking of queer Black and on Broadway. An incredibly Black and queer musical that has gone on to win many awards—including a Tony for BEST MUSICAL—all while staying true to itself and having a cast and content that many Black queer Broadway lovers can relate to and were excited to see.

Folks were flooding Justen's comments with questions on when the musical would be ready and of course asking for a release date. The creator simply and lovingly responded with "I'm taking my time. Because it's worth it. When it's ready, it's gonna be fab"

I believe it times a million and wish Justen and crew nothing but the best, along with all the resources they need to make this incredible production come to life!