The Bolshoi Ballet, one of the world's top classical dance companies, has jettisoned tradition. Its new production of ``Romeo and Juliet,'' which had its U.K. premiere on Monday, abandons ballet shoes, traditional costumes and even chunks of Prokofiev's original score.

This attempt to inject modern high drama into a classic results in an effortful production which aims to be closer in tone to the youthful urgency of the 1957 Romeo and Juliet makeover ``West Side Story.'' The warring Montague and Capulet families are reduced to indistinguishable crowds largely dressed in gray trousers and white short-sleeved shirts; boisterous Mercutio turns up in drag; the murders are carried out with flick-knives.

Unfortunately, while the iconoclastic nature of the production may be refreshing for the dancers not familiar with a modern aesthetic, the lukewarm response of the opening-night audience suggests that Westerners used to seeing contemporary choreography find the result lackluster.

Every choreographer since the first production in 1938 has interpreted the work differently. For his first ever ballet production, Declan Donnellan -- a British theater director -- uses choreographer Radu Poklitaru to create a version focused on the crowd scenes.

Their dancers glower, stomp, sneer at and sometimes lift and separate the leading characters. Although the ensemble groupings are dramatically lit, we rarely get the chance to feel the love between the hero and heroine. Without that, the tragedy fails to achieve any emotional effect.

Flexed Feet and Martha

Worse, Politkaru's choreography works its laborious way through a checklist of 20th century dance cliches. Feet are always flexed; Juliet (Maria Aklexandrova) shows her frustration by running on the spot and getting nowhere; Lady Capulet, in her grieving scene, evokes, quite ridiculously, the late U.S. dancer and choreographer Martha Graham; and as in works by the modish Swedish choreographer Mats Ek, Politkaru's dancers scream and laugh. That only underlines the underdeveloped emotion present in the actual choreography.

This great heartbreaker has survived countless stage re- interpretations, not to mention numerous film versions up to and including Baz Luhrmann's 1996 ``Romeo + Juliet.'' This production may stop the Bolshoi from looking solely to the past for inspiration, yet it's a work largely unsuitable for export.