THEATER REVIEW : The Two Dueling ‘Juliets’: One Conventional, One Not

Elvis Costello isn’t the only artist with Juliet on his mind.

Two productions of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” are on the boards. The more interesting is an all-women’s multicultural version by Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Co. at Hollywood Actors Theater. A Noise Within’s more conventional production suffers from miscasting in the central roles, at the group’s home in the Glendale Masonic Temple.

Lisa Wolpe’s all-women’s edition begins with puppets acting out the prologue, while a handful of the cast sings the words. This establishes an extra layer of make-believe at the outset, so we can move beyond the question of verisimilitude that might bother some playgoers as they see the women in men’s roles.

Still, it doesn’t require a vast stretch of the imagination to get involved in this “Romeo.” Wolpe’s performance as Romeo is one of the reasons why.

Though her frame is hardly big, even by women’s sizes, Wolpe has recast herself as a young man to an uncanny degree. Her voice is the key--low, mellow, authoritative, but her posture and even her haircut play their parts as well. And it isn’t just the gender switch that she has down so well; she also has Romeo himself well in hand, moving fluidly from melancholy to ardor to tragedy.

Leigh Curran does an equally smooth gender-switching job on Lord Capulet. Diane Robinson is almost as convincing as fiery Mercutio, and along with Wolpe and Karole Foreman as Benvolio, she makes much of the Capulet gang’s dirty little jokes. Erin Erlich’s Tybalt doesn’t look like a man at all, but her bluster makes you forget it.

Friar Lawrence, already a more desexed role, is played with grave authority by Natsuko Ohama. And Diane Mountford’s Paris looks like early Matt Dillon.

Fran Bennett is a marvelously fussy Nurse, and we can see Donya Giannotta’s Juliet growing up before our eyes. The only weak link is Caroline Ducrocq’s Lady Capulet, who speaks with a jarring accent and wooden cadences.

Co-director Erica Bilder staged the fights. While they don’t offer as much brute strength as some fights, Bilder’s choreography of key moments is absolutely precise. It’s crystal clear, for example, why Mercutio blames Romeo for the blow that slays him. Bilder also brings a quirky presence to the minor role of Peter.

Only one scene is defeated by the gender-bending: the newlyweds’ one night together, before the tragedy takes over. Perhaps to avoid a “Crying Game”-style shock, Romeo hardly removes a stitch of his clothes, and it makes their night of passion too chaste.

At least in that one scene, Art Manke’s staging for A Noise Within is clearly superior. Manke’s crowd scenes are also more lavishly staged, and he has added a haunting visual coda at the end of the play--a moment that suggests the lovers’ souls remain united in another dimension.

Generally, however, A Noise Within’s production is afflicted by a Juliet (Gail Shapiro) who’s far too sophisticated, even haughty, and a Romeo (Kenneth R. Merckx Jr.) who’s too boyishly hyped-up from the beginning. Not only do these interpretations go nowhere, but they clash, so there isn’t a trace of chemistry between the two--except, perhaps, in the aforementioned bedroom scene.

Other performances are better. But the production is too long. The line that predicts “two hours’ traffic” on the stage may be unrealistic, but three hours (including intermissions) is excessive.

* “Romeo and Juliet,” Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Co. at Hollywood Actors Theater, 1157 N. McCadden Place, Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays,7 p.m. Ends April 4. $15. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 55 minutes.

* “Romeo and Juliet,” A Noise Within at Glendale Masonic Temple, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale. Thursday, Saturday, 8 p.m.; April 2, 15 and 29, May 7 and 14, 8 p.m.; April 4 and 25, May 9, 7 p.m.; April 17 and May 1, 9 p.m.; April 24, 4 p.m. Ends May 14. $14. (818) 546-1924. Running time: 3 hours, 5 minutes.