Credit: Marvel StudiosTom Holland is stepping up to Taylor Swift levels of popularity after his upcoming new show sold out in record time and invited comparisons to the singer’s mega-successful Eras Tour.
As we previously reported, Tom Holland bummed out a whole bunch of Spider-Man fans when he recently teased a surprise new announcement, only to inform the world that he was returning to the London West End to star in a new production of Romeo & Juliet from acclaimed theatrical director Jamie Lloyd.
A lot of Marvel Cinematic Universe partisans were hoping that the actor was finally going to give some solid indication of what is going on with Spider-Man 4, his highly anticipated and still mysterious return to the role of Peter Parker. It turns out that although a lot of Spider-Man fans were disappointed by the news, a gigantic number of theatergoers have been hoping and eagerly waiting for Tom Holland to return to the West End.
Tom Holland first came to prominence in the United Kingdom in the long-running West End production of Billy Elliot: The Musical, first in the supporting role of Michael Caffrey and then as the title character. His return to the stage has been long awaited, and the new Jamie Lloyd version of Romeo & Juliet sold out in an astonishingly fast two hours, with a reported 60,000 people vying for tickets (per Deadline).
The comparisons to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour began almost immediately. Notoriously, tickets to Swift’s ongoing tour crashed the entire Ticketmaster system when they first went on sale, and fans had to wait for hours just to get told it was sold out.
Apparently, Tom Holland in Romeo & Juliet is the U.K. equivalent. On Twitter, fans have been expressing their frustration over the difficulty of getting tickets. User @jazerole posted, “getting tickets to tom holland’s romeo & juliet is starting to feel like eras tour trauma”
@poeticinemas chimed in, saying, “getting tickets for tom holland’s romeo and juliet is honestly harder than getting harry styles and taylor swift tickets combined”
@janemargclis said, “so you’re telling me there was a queue of 50k for people trying get presale tickets for tom’s romeo & juliet play and they’re already sold out?? you’d think this was a beyoncé or taylor swift concert instead of a play, tom holland you will always be famous!
Tom Holland will appear in Romeo & Juliet for a limited run from May 11 through August 3 at the Duke of York’s Theatre. If you were thinking of getting tickets…you’re out of luck.
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