Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish.

A Vilna City Films production in association with Oscar Prods, Stratford Upon the Dnieper. Produced by Eve Annenberg, Lazer Weiss, Mendy Zafir.

Directed, written by Eve Annenberg. Reviewed at Elinor Bunin Monroe Theater, New York, July 8, 2011. Running time: 92 MIN.

With: Eve Annenberg, Lazer Weiss, Mendy Zafir, Bubbles Yoeli Weiss, Melissa Weisz, Isaac Schoenfeld, Josef Yossi Friedman, Aaron Keller, David Germano.

(English, Yiddish dialogue)

Perhaps the only "Romeo and Juliet" adaptation lacking star-crossed lovers, Eve Annenberg's comedy offers parallel storylines: One concerns a middle-aged nurse-cum-graduate student who, along with a trio of larcenous Hasidic dropouts, works on an updated Yiddish translation of Shakespeare's tragedy. Meanwhile, selected scenes from the play itself unfold sporadically, magically projecting the translators into key roles. Hearing the majestic iambic pentameter rendered in the sharply rising and falling cadences of colloquial Yiddish proves wackily charming, but the lack of correlation between the two plots makes the result feel unfocused. Bowed July 8 in Gotham, pic promises more than it delivers.