All Episodes

May 6, 2026 11 mins

& Juliet is the newest Broadway hit coming to Wellington this Saturday.

The musical flips the script on the classic Romeo and Juliet, asking what would happen if Juliet if she took hold of her own destiny?

Nick is joined by the two stars Awhimai Fraser and Matu Ngaropo, both musical theatre legends and proud Kiwis.

The show opens at St James Theatre and will run from 9-24 May.

Fraser and Ngaropo share their experience working on the show and what makes it adored by audiences.

Fraser voiced Elsa in the Te Reo Māori version of Frozen, and both champion the language. Nick chats to the stars about using Te Reo and the empowerment of the language. 

Tickets to the show are avaliable here 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Got two very special guests in the studio and Juliet
is at the Saint James right now. We're going to
be joined, well, we are being joined by two absolute
stars of the New Zealand theater and performance. The hit
musical and Juliet is coming to Wellington. It starts on
the Saint James on Theater on Saturday. The story is basically, well,

(00:33):
I do actually know what the story is. It's not
Romeo and Juliet. It's a version of where Juliet decides
her life isn't ending for anybody, especially Romeo.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Joining me in the studio.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
The two people that play Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare
himself are too hugely respected New Zealand performers. After my
af after my Fraser and much too raw. Paul, Paul,
how's that? I did terribly?

Speaker 3 (00:59):
You're all good.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
We're just happy to be here, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
We are happy to have the show in town and
excited to have you here.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
I mean much. Did you start?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
You tell me what the storyline is because I can't
work it out. I read it and read and I said,
what is the storyline?

Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, well, as William Shakespeare should be pretty good at
explaining what this is. So, as we all know, at
the end of Romeo and Juliet, the original work, Romeo
and Juliet both die. It's one of the greatest tragic
love stories of all time. And that's how William would
have wanted it. But our play, our show starts and
in shortach when Shakespeare and his company of players are

(01:36):
getting together to put on the opening night of Romeo
and Juliet, and Anne, Shakespeare's wife, has come down from Stratford.
He said, I've got a babysitter, I'm gonna get a
glass of wine. I'm going to come and watch the show.
And he says, oh, lork All, I've written this's really
awesome ending. She goes, actually, honey, that ending is terrible.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
What if that's really bad?

Speaker 4 (01:56):
What if Juliet didn't die and she decided what she
was going to do with her life and carved out
her own destiny.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
After my lot's talk a lot of talk about the songs,
and tell us about the songs, because we've got a text,
I said, or fair, we've got a text saying that
the show is amazing and the music's amazing. Now tell
me about the songs.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
Yeah, I mean, the songs are just as much a
part of the show as the script. They kind of
go hand in hand. They're the heart, They're the beating
heart of the story. Max Martin songs. They some of
them are really obvious, some come of surprises, but they
intertwine into the show itself, almost like we go from
speaking into singing within a breath.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
So tell me the idea of a musical is there
talking as well?

Speaker 4 (02:42):
Is?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
How does it work? I mean, I know what a
musical is. It's all singing and a lot of acting
in theater. Is that what it is exactly?

Speaker 5 (02:50):
Yeah, It's a compilation of dialogue and song and dance
and told by not only us and our colleagues, but
also by our ensemble.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
How many in the cast?

Speaker 4 (03:05):
I mean, tell it where last of twenty and there
are eight principal roles in twelve ensemble members. And like
Kuffi my saying, the ensemble is like a backbone off
this work. They're on the entire time, and they're dancing.
They're singing incredibly tight harmonies to pop bangers of the
nineties and two thousands that you will like them, know

(03:26):
and love live band put them and we've got some
local musicians who we are yet to meet because we're
getting into the theater later this afternoon.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
But it's a huge, huge.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Show for a New Zealand company and a New Zealand
group of players to put on. It is just av
It is incredible music, it is beautiful script being inspired
by some of the original text and new storylines, and
an international global level.

Speaker 5 (03:55):
Company and the set's unbelievable and are unbelievable beautiful.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Oh, Puffy By, you voiced stuff for Disney characters.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
I've seen.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
I've seen them and I've watched them and got emotional
watching them. You perform with the New Zealand Symphony August
your theater live today. Oh, I mean, what's what's what
gets your buzz?

Speaker 4 (04:16):
What?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
What do you like the most of what you do,
which is everything?

Speaker 5 (04:20):
That's a great question. I first of my first love
was was to sing, and so sort of that's my
endo everything. If I can sing it, I'm in love
with it. It's been a while since I've done live theater,
so this has been really humbling and awesome, especially being
a new mama with my son Cooper Cody, and so

(04:42):
my fan no are traveling with me wherever we tour
this show. So that's new for me, and it's awesome
and I love it. I think any year basically anything
to do with the voice is a big green tick
from me.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Are you both into today?

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Is that?

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Is that something that you're both into or yeah? We
both are.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
We're both real Maori speakers and we've both been lucky
enough to work with Disney and on my we've both
done television and English and Maori through Tedy and Zed
and Maori television. So in this kind of work and
being a creative, the more skills you have, the more

(05:22):
diverse your catta is of ability, the more likely you
are to have a long and sustainable career.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
I think it's incredible because I'm of an age where
the percentage of people that actually spoke today I was very,
very very low. And yet I have a family member
in their seventies now learning today trying to you know
what I mean that. So the world's changed, isn't it.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
Yeah? Absolutely, And I was lucky enough to have my
family as a part of the first kol hunger l
movement and into kutokopoper Maori and coming from a household
where both of my parents were Native speakers. I was
one of the very few in the early eighties being
a toddler going to cor Hunger having real maldi spoken

(06:08):
at home by native speakers. But now forty forty five
years later, the world, the country has completely changed, and
this next generation of incredibly well educated youngsters and both
al Maori and our Pakihart is a really amazing thing
to behold.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Would you guys go and have a coffee?

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Say together?

Speaker 2 (06:32):
This is kind of like where I'm just trying to
get a little bit more, you know, Would you guys
go and have a coffee together and just suddenly speaking
today and one.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Hundred and feel comfortable doing it? Oh Yeah, A coffee.

Speaker 5 (06:46):
A wine, a s gone anything any place.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
Any place, any time.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
And I guess that's a real shift to, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
I think it's amazing because you see, I have this
issue myself where if I'm in a kitchen, because I
come from a hospitality background, where three or four Indians
are talking in Indian in front of me, I feel
I want to say offended because I don't understand and
they could be talking about me? Do you have that
same issue when you're talking to you know, you're suddenly

(07:15):
talking to the waitress in English and then you start
talking in today, do you think that that they might
be thinking that you're talking about them?

Speaker 4 (07:22):
It's incredible that you bring this up. I was literally
having this exact conversation with one of my best mates
who I'm staying with while I'm down here, and he
was talking about his experience where these two people started
speaking Mary in front of him and he's learning to
do Mary, and he kind of felt slightly offended, and
I reminded him that actually, just hearing two people speak
their own language in front of you is something they

(07:44):
are celebrating because they can be themselves and it literally
has nothing to do with you. And if you want
to be included, then that is an incredibly inspiring thing
to go out and learn.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
But do you understand where I'm feeling it?

Speaker 4 (07:56):
Do you?

Speaker 2 (07:57):
You know?

Speaker 3 (07:57):
If you study?

Speaker 4 (07:58):
You know?

Speaker 2 (07:58):
I asked the question you suddenly started talking to each other?
And today I was thinking, Oh, what have I done
If I upset them? You know, it's bad? Isn't it bad?

Speaker 3 (08:04):
For me?

Speaker 4 (08:05):
Not?

Speaker 3 (08:05):
You? You know?

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Yo?

Speaker 4 (08:06):
I think everybody has their own relationship to culture, especially
in our country, because we have so many different and
beautiful cultures, and we're all on our own journeys to
understanding and empathy towards each other. And as long as
we continue on that journey, that's the main thing.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
I've got to ask you both this individually. If suddenly
Disney rang you and said I've got a position for you,
what would it be, Mutter, What would be the dream
job that you would be offered.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
To play Mufassa in the reimagined new animation of Disney's
The Lion King worldwide?

Speaker 5 (08:40):
Hello, I love it for me. I mean honestly that
I do feel like I had that call and that
I of course that I was able to play a beautiful, confidence,
slightly crazy, eccentric goddess guardian of a realm and it.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
Was an unbelievable today.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
Yeah, and the original one or two, I was the
voice of Matangui before we did the Tedeale Malti vision
with Multiwa Media. Sorry, no, you're okay, So we released
it on the same day. So we released one or
two the original with Disney, as well as one or
two to del Malti with multiwar media at the same day,
first time in history. Very very very proud to be

(09:24):
a part of both. So I did have that call
and it was unbelievable. I'm still processing it three years later.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Well they keep coming, do you think, I mean, of
course they're going to keep coming. They'll keep coming, right,
So tell me why people listening and there's a lot
of people listening to the show. Why people should buy
a ticket to Anne Juliet.

Speaker 5 (09:46):
It's an amazing night out with your people. It's joy,
it's funny, it could potentially get you in your fields.
It allows you to breathe into experience, and there are
surprises along the way that hook people in, hopefully till
the very end of the show.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
It's a party. It is a real party. Want to
come and get out of your seat and dance immediately?

Speaker 3 (10:10):
Are allowed?

Speaker 4 (10:10):
Of course they can, And we have had people dancing
the entire show.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
What will they be doing when they leave? You know,
I mean, we've seen you all want to leave. We've
seen we've got to kick them out.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
They want to keep partying with us and dancing us
to sing these bangers. Honestly, it's such beautiful.

Speaker 5 (10:26):
Audience members have bought tickets straight after the show. Will
they bring a family member, they want to bring their
mum next, or they want to bring their bestie share
in like whoever it is. I think people have wanted
to see it a couple of times because it is
surprising how much it's able to sink into you.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
You know what, I'll tell you.

Speaker 4 (10:44):
I heard a story where two of my mates were
sitting there watching the show and at interval, the people
in front of them booked, rebooked tickets again to come
the next week. They saw them bring up ticke a tech,
bring up Ticketmaster. I'm like, well, that's selling itself, Isn't
it such a good night out? You'll know these songs,
you know the story. Come and be inspired, have a

(11:05):
body good.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
I've got to go on. I want to buy tickets.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Afi My Fraser and Matu nad Report thank you very
much for joining me on the show.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
I'm blessed.

Speaker 5 (11:17):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills. Listen live
to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.

Bleep! with Ana Navarro

Bleep! with Ana Navarro

Fear thrives in silence and confusion. Ana Navarro rejects both. Her voice is an antidote to today’s chaos. Her new podcast, Bleep! with Ana Navarro, takes on today’s most pressing issues with the voices most connected to it: decision-makers, political leaders, cultural shapers, and people on the frontlines of the story. The conversations acknowledge the emotions we all feel—despair, sadness, fear— but emerge with knowledge, perspective, and hope. The belief is simple: fearless dialogue can transform fear into courage, and courage into change. When fear dominates the headlines, this show digs deeper. Because information, debate, and conversation don’t just ease fear, they give us power to shape the future.

Hey Jonas!

Hey Jonas!

Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.

  • Help
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • AdChoicesAd Choices