The young, ill-fated couple, who unite only four brief times, arguably engage in the greatest literary love story for the ages. They meet briefly across a crowded room; again, on the same starry night, when she is perched on her balcony and he is encumbered by the ground below; then when they exchange vows without celebration, fulfilling a sacrament but inadvertently fueling their families’ feud; next in their wedding bed or a one-night affair; and, ultimately, when their beauty and youth bleed into eternity. Romeo and his Juliet have inspired more than 400 years of productions of the play, an overture by Tchaikovsky, a ballet by Prokofiev, a musical that helped define the genre (1957’s West Side Story), an array of films (including Baz Luhrmann’s 1997 “Romeo + Juliet”), essentially every 2-minute-and-32-second pop song, and a multitudes of other works of art.

The young, ill-fated couple, who unite only four brief times, arguably engage in the greatest literary love story for the ages. They meet briefly across a crowded room; again, on the same starry night, when she is perched on her balcony and he is encumbered by the ground below; then when they exchange vows without celebration, fulfilling a sacrament but inadvertently fueling their families’ feud; next in their wedding bed or a one-night affair; and, ultimately, when their beauty and youth bleed into eternity. Romeo and his Juliet have inspired more than 400 years of productions of the play, an overture by Tchaikovsky, a ballet by Prokofiev, a musical that helped define the genre (1957’s West Side Story), an array of films (including Baz Luhrmann’s 1997 “Romeo + Juliet”), essentially every 2-minute-and-32-second pop song, and a multitudes of other works of art.