It’s hard to believe that this Romeo and Juliet have a love so overpoweringly essential that they not only risk their lives in its pursuit, but would prefer death to its absence.

"Romeo + Juliet" stars Rachel Zegler and Kit Connor, with music by Jack Antonoff, in Sam Gold's feisty new Broadway production.

Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler star in Sam Gold’s frenzied, youthful staging of the Shakespeare tragedy.

Characters vape, gender is fluid, desire bi, and death assured in director Sam Gold’s hyperpop reimagining of ‘Romeo + Juliet.’

Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler lead the nihilistic, nonsensical “Romeo + Juliet.” Nearby, Juliana Margulies and Peter Gallagher star in the sentimental “Left on Tenth.”

In the promotional run-up to director Sam Gold’s production of “Romeo + Juliet,” much effort was made to promote the intensity of its young stars’ feelings, justifying the exorcism of that prosaic ampersand in the title in favor of an additive plus sign.