Ah love! Time enough for doom and tomb

NEW YORK - When light breaks through yonder window in the Public Theater's production of

Romeo and Juliet

, it illuminates a love story that can make you giddy.

He climbs the framework to the balcony, and they kiss with passion. He teases, she teases back. He makes eyes, she blushes. Oh! Those crazy, wild, smoochy, smitten kids! Are they really star-crossed, or mostly starry-eyed?

Well, both. And under the direction of Michael Greif (Grey Gardens, Rent), plenty of both. This may be the most joyful rendition of Shakespeare's play you'll see, a tragedy but also a ton of fun. The first part, though everyone knows this affair is about to head far south, is upbeat and playful.

Its two lead players - the kinetic, wide-eyed Oscar Isaac and the girlishly arresting Lauren Ambrose (Claire Fisher on TV's Six Feet Under) - dance through the beginning of their romance blind to the enormous mess they are choreographing. As a result, the second half seems a little disjointed as things descend into total destruction.

But that's a nit; I can't get this Romeo and Juliet out of my mind. In Greif's hands, the falling-in-love part seems so natural. In some R&Js, the whole world seems doomed from the street battle between the hate-mongering Capulet and Montague families that begins the play. From there on, it's Family Feud, Elizabethan version, and the lovers fall for each other with heavy hearts and chaste minds.

At the open-air Delacorte Theater, with the trees of Central Park looming, the birds (aloft) and bees (unseen) are part of the package, and Romeo and Juliet are all over each other.

They're supported by a bang-up cast, particularly Juliet's nurse, played by the forceful Camryn Manheim, who wrings every piece of comedy from the text to make the character much more than just a foolish woman. Christopher Evan Welch breathes a cagey spirit into Mercutio that serves the sidekick character well. Veteran actor-director-playwright Austin Pendleton - Philadelphia Theatre Company just ended a run of his Orson's Shadow - is an animated Friar Laurence, frantic in his mission to do right by everyone. Brian Tyree Henry and Owiso Odera are the incendiary Tybalt and Benvolio. Along with the cast, they brawl with fine swordwork created by fight director Rick Sordelet.

The quirky setting, by Mark Wendland, first mystified me, but then I found it fine: The entire production takes place over and around water, a sort of huge pond, or is it Verona, Italy's, placid Adige River? The story unfolds on a circular, rotating boardwalk framing the water, several inches deep, and on a bridge over it. The actors splash in the water, tumble in it, kick it for effect, die in it, and wade in with suits, and dresses, and shoes, and sandals, soaking Emilio Sosa's nifty costumes. I didn't get the meaning, if any, but the water was incorporated so well, it became part of the play.

Written by William Shakespeare, directed by Michael Greif, set by Mark Wendland, costumes by Emilio Sosa, lighting by Donald Holder, fighting staged by Rick Sordelet. Presented by the Public Theater.

Cast: Oscar Isaac (Romeo), Lauren Ambrose (Juliet), Christopher Evan Welch (Mercutio), Camryn Manheim (nurse), Austin Pendelton (Friar Laurence), Brian Tyree Henry (Tybalt), Owiso Odera (Benvolio), George Bartenieff (Montague), Michael Christofer (Capulet), Saidah Arrika Ekulona (Lady Montague), Opal Alladin (Lady Capulet).

Playing at: Delacorte Theater, 81st Street at Central Park West, New York City, through July 8. Tickets are free and available the day of performance at the theater beginning at 1 p.m. and at The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., (near Astor Place), from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Information: 212-967-7555 or www.publictheater.org. EndText