BREATHTAKINGLY acrobatic dancing and world-class DJs could not save Rome and Jewels from being a big let-down.

The promise of an updated Romeo and Juliet along b-boy and hip-hop lines brought dozens of youngsters flocking to Malvern's Forum Theatre on Tuesday night (October 30).

But far from the imaginative interpretations seen in Baz Luhrmann's film or Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, which succeeded in making the story sexy to a TV-literate generation, they were presented with a baffling mishmash of sounds and movement.

Little intelligible narrative and a total lack of characterisation meant the story of the "star-crossed homies", as the script had it, completely failed to invoke any of the original's pathos.

That would not have mattered had the audience been dazzled by wonderful dance moves and top-level DJing. But frustratingly little of this was in evidence until the second half, which exploded into life with incredible moves and music that made the whole thing worth seeing.

Otherwise the dancers spent a large proportion of the show rolling about on the floor and gesticulating inexplicably to the accompaniment of distorted noise.

Snatches of dialogue from films could often be heard, interspersed with distorted speech and the odd incongruous line from Shakespeare.

Overall, the opportunity for a great show was lost, and the only tears invoked by the production were of frustration.

Jon di Paolo