He is one of the biggest names in show business – and it is possible you have never heard of him.
At 54, Swedish songwriter and record producer Max Martin has written more No 1 singles than any artist, aside from Paul McCartney. He counts Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande and the Weeknd among his collaborators, but he is so low-key and humble that he refers to his music career as his “day job”.
That would make musical theatre Martin’s passion project – specifically, the creation of a jukebox musical called & Juliet.
The musical strings together some of his biggest hits in service of an uproarious, feel-good plot that reimagines the heroine of Shakespeare’s famous teenage tragedy as her own woman – one who does not decide to stab herself in the heart when her main squeeze drinks poison.
Success was important to the show, mainly because Martin wanted to do right by his A-list collaborators, all of whom gladly agreed to allow their songs to be included in the score. And with the musical featuring a libretto by playwright and TV writer David West Read, choreography by Jennifer Weber and nearly 30 hits by Martin, the stakes felt very high going in.