Romeo and Juliet on screen set in present-day Manhattan and featuring Lemmy (of Motörhead) as its chorus. Sporting the tagline "Body piercing. Kinky sex. Dismemberment. The things that made Shakespeare great.", "Tromeo and Juliet" premiered at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and won several awards at independent horror and fantasy film festivals. Despite positive reviews from "The New York Times", "USA Today", "Entertainment Weekly" and "Variety", Shakespeare scholar Daniel Rosenthal described "Tromeo" as "the nadir of screen Shakespeare", calling it a "tedious, appallingly acted feast of mutilation and softcore sex". Cheah Chee-Kong's 2000 Singaporean film "Chicken Rice War" ("Jiyuan Qiaohe") adapts "Romeo and Juliet" as
Romeo and Juliet original storyline. Professional performances of Shakespeare in the mid-19th century had two particular features: firstly, they were generally star vehicles, with supporting roles cut or marginalised to give greater prominence to the central characters. Secondly, they were "pictorial", placing the action on spectacular and elaborate sets (requiring lengthy pauses for scene changes) and with the frequent use of tableaux. Henry Irving's 1882 production at the Lyceum Theatre (with himself as Romeo and Ellen Terry as Juliet) is considered an archetype of the pictorial style. In 1895, Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson took over from Irving and laid the groundwork for a more