Director John Zamora’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which opened at the Cerritos College Burnight Center Theater on April 29 was awesome.

It was a refreshing display of a classic story modernized by using gangster attire, dark clothes and tattoos along with today’s music such as ska, metal, hip hop and many more.

The two-and-a-half hour long play was filled with drama, knife fights and crotch grabbing. All this was tied in with mixed dialogue by Shakespeare and today’s speech.

There was a lot of provocative dialog, which was a good thing because it made the plot more comedic and captures the interest of younger people.

It was very interesting to see the actors and actresses manage to keep the language of Shakespeare alive while staying in their modern realm.

This makes the classic story fun again and turning it up a notch with interesting twists.

The flow of the play kept you in your seat and the supporting cast was amazing.

Emmanuel Plascencia, who played Mercutio, did a phenomenal job entertaining the crowd and causing the most laughs of the night.

The main characters, Juliet, played by Bianca Meiloaica, and Romeo, played by Erik Mann, had a good chemistry together.

Their romantic scenes seem to excite the women in the crowd and Juliet seemed to give every man in the audience butterflies.

Overall the play was down right entertaining. Hands down, this play is worth the money with all the laughs and excitement the entire cast provides.

Catch this play at the Burnight Center Theatre on May 3, 4, 5 at 8 p.m and May 6 at 2 p.m.