And certainly J&B will be way less expensive than JE to produce: only two actors instead of six, modern, not period costumes and a simple staging.
Although not as simple as a production I saw this weekend: the actor I have in mind for JULIA, Claire Warden performed in her theater group's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM as Titania. If they hadn't cast her as Titania I would have boycotted on principle. There was some good stuff in this production although I disagreed with many of the director's choices, especially moving the first "rude mechanicals" scene to the beginning of the play. Changing the sequence of Shakepeare's plays seems to be this particular director's thing - he did it to a production of HAMLET too.
One of the consequences of the DREAM scene change is that Titania ends up being "asleep" on stage for twenty minutes. I would never make an actor lie motionless on stage for twenty minutes, it's absurd.
Anyway, their set was just a bunch of blocks. I took a picture during intermission:
I saw a production of Vonnegut's HAPPY BIRTHDAY WANDA JUNE in this same space and they had a massively tricked-out set. What a contrast.
This is the Access Theater on lower Broadway, and I will never do a production there because it's a four-flight walkup and I don't want to do that to the old people who make up a goodly percentage of any professional theater audience in New York.