THEATER REVIEW : Tradition Slays Young ‘Romeo and Juliet’ : The Elizabethan approach at Golden West College would be charming, but the students are too inexperienced.

Everybody, apparently, is crazy about “Romeo and Juliet.”

In 1993 alone, the Verona tragedy of star-crossed lovers had three major Los Angeles productions and several more community and college stagings. And it keeps coming: We’re not even in spring, according to the groundhog, and Golden West College has Romeo and Juliet mixing it up at the campus Mainstage Theatre. (On another campus to the north--UCLA--playwright Edit Villareal has her own version, “The Language of Flowers,” opening Friday.)

The major ’93 productions demonstrated that there are countless ways to do “R and J,” from director Michael Arabian’s bold environmental approach on a studio back lot to the L.A. Women’s Shakespeare Company’s all-woman, Italianate approach.

Indeed, there have been so many interpretations that the original one--the Elizabethan approach--adopted by director Charles Mitchell at Golden West looks charming by comparison.

Charming, that is, until his student cast starts playing Elizabethan. Then the magic and the passion fade fast.

Golden West has amply proved that it is a few steps ahead of most college drama departments in the county. If it doesn’t draw talent, it certainly appears to train it.

This time, though, most of the students are so unschooled in the ways of Shakespeare that this tragedy driven by impetuous emotions has all of the plodding grayness typical of a lame staging of one of the Bard’s history plays.

Plodding, like Mitchell’s ’93 staging of “Dracula.” In each, the mostly young actors look and sound as if they’re mimicking the behavior of an era rather than understanding it and making it their own.

The detailed design elements for “Romeo,” especially William Charles’ fair simulation of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for the set and Susan Thomas Babb’s well-researched and lush costumes, can only do so much of the work of putting us in Shakespeare’s time.

A big period element in this staging is Elizabethan bawdiness: the sort of business where the young cad says “ ‘tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh” and gestures below his belt. But it always appears practiced, and the energy that goes with bawdiness never develops.

The one actor with fuel to burn is Robin Spehar as a galloping, galvanic Mercutio, Romeo’s dreaming pal with the gift of gab. But while Spehar appears to be putting on a clinic in comedy (and, in his death scene, how actors can resist cliches), the rest of his Veronese buddies stand watching him. This is a gang, of sorts, but Spehar is the only one who seems to know.

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At the other end of the energy scale, alas, are the lovers themselves--Austin Lawrence’s Romeo and Debbie Caceres-Gerber’s Juliet. Lawrence, lanky and fondling a rose during his entrance, is hard to warm up to, and Caceres-Gerber, with a thin, untrained voice and unemotional presence, makes for a curiously unappealing center of attention. And the elements that can’t be taught--chemistry and charisma--aren’t here at all.

The whole advantage, one would have thought, of a student “R and J” is that the teen love can be real, rather than a case of the oldster pros trying to re-create their youths.

Nevertheless, the older actors at Golden West come off better than most of the youngsters: Rollo Sternaman’s Capulet is in fine ferocity, and Rosemary Stecker’s Lady Capulet makes a fine match word for word. Larry L. Fisher’s Lawrence interestingly suggests a priest young enough to understand teen problems.

So does Christina Leffler’s Nurse, for a while, but she too is soon afflicted with this show’s energy crisis. Michael Richardson never works up the proper bile for Tybalt, and Jim Slabacheski mumbles his way through Benvolio.

Perhaps the students will get a boost with the school’s upcoming stab at that other “Romeo and Juliet”--”West Side Story.” Better switchblades, perhaps, than rapiers.

“Romeo and Juliet,” Golden West College Mainstage Theatre, 15744 Golden West St., Huntington Beach. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 3 p.m. Ends Sunday. $9-10. (714) 895-8378. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes. Austin Lawrence: Romeo

Debbie Caceres-Gerber: Juliet

Christina Leffler: Nurse

Larry L. Fisher: Lawrence

Robin Spehar: Mercutio

Rollo Sternaman: Capulet

Rosemary Stecker: Lady Capulet

Michael Richardson: Tybalt

Jim Slabacheski: Benvolio

A Golden West College student theater workshop production of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Directed by Charles Mitchell. Set and lights: William Charles. Costumes: Susan Thomas Babb. Sound: David Edwards.