'ROMEO AND JULIET' - ON THE EDGE.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

PRODUCTIONS OF Shakespeare's ``Romeo and Juliet'' are as bountiful as grains of sand - or summer ants. Before the apocalypse, I figure that those two crazy lovestruck kids will meet, kiss, wed and off themselves a few billion times. In high schools and in colleges, in productions set among the dinosaurs or on the moon. You name it, somebody will do it.

How do you keep fresh an immortal - yet too familiar - love story? Well, in the case of Shakespeare Festival/L.A., now in its 16th year of providing free Bard work for arts patrons and schools alike - you begin by making your Paris infinitely more cool than Romeo. How's that for complicating Juliet's choice?

Anyone remember Paris? He's Juliet's betrothed both before and after that fatal ball where our heroine falls for Romeo, the son of her enemy. Paris is usually played as a well-intentioned, equally amorous nerd who is far less attractive than dangerous, forbidden Romeo.

Not in Pershing Square, where SF/LA's ``Romeo and Juliet'' completes a two-week run before moving to the South Coast Botanical Garden. The production is set in the present, at one of those ultrahip after-hours clubs, with the Capulets and the Montagues apparently presiding over rival record labels. DeSean Terry's Paris is a breakdancing, lady-serenading fireball. And Papa Capulet (played by the always fine Tom Ramirez) likes him. Squeaky voiced Romeo (Maulik Pancholy) shouldn't stand a chance.

Still, love being just as blind in the L.A. record scene as in Renaissance Verona, Juliet (Careena Melia) makes the unwise selection. Then there's a brawl between Romeo's pal, Mercutio (Michael Matthys), and Juliet's cousin, Tybalt (Dathan Hooper). Romeo ends up banished from Verona, and you know the rest. We don't see much of Paris for the remainder of the play. No more songs. Too bad, really.

Not that Terry is this ``R and J's'' only highlight. Director Dani Bedau gives the proceedings an engaging ``here and now'' aura, which the music by local band Lava Diva considerably enhances (kudos also to sound systems designer Jon Gottlieb). And, unlike Sir Peter Hall's high-profile production of the same play at the Ahmanson a year ago, Bedau has - praise be - allowed the text to be cut.

Romeo and Juliet both make their first appearances carrying portable CD players (a matched pair!). Pancholy's Romeo has slightly shredded jeans and a leather jacket. Melia's Juliet is bespectacled, dressed trashy-chic and, with her hair tied up, could indeed pass for 13. These are kids - passionate, petulant, impatient kids - even if they do have noble pedigrees. And we root for them.

The grown-ups acquit themselves ably as well. Ramirez doesn't overplay Capulet's fury while Marika Becz's Lady Capulet gives the impression that she wants Juliet to have a fate different from her own. J. Karen Thomas is all swagger and attitude as Juliet's Nurse, and David Nevell injects a little bit of fire into Friar Laurence.

It's always a welcome sight to encounter a production of Shakespeare accessible enough to serve as a good introduction to school-age children. Anybody who hasn't seen literature's ``star-crossed lovers'' a few too many times should particularly appreciate Bedau and Co.'s work.

To audiences looking for something a little new, well, SF/LA always has Paris.

ROMEO AND JULIET - Three stars

Where: Pershing Square, 532 S. Olive St., Los Angeles, through Saturday. At South Coast Botanic Gardens, 26300 Crenshaw Blvd., Palos Verdes Peninsula, July 25 through Aug. 4.

When: 8:15 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday; through Aug. 4.

Tickets: Free at Pershing Square with canned food donation, $15 to $18 at South Coast Botanic Garden. Call [phone] or visit www.shakespearefestivalla.org.

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Romeo (Maulik Pancholy) tries to overcome obstacles between him and Juliet (Careena Melia) in the Shakespeare Festival/L.A. production of the Bard's classic romantic tragedy.