Leah Nicole Raymond and Stacey Raymond Photo by Isaiah Tanenbaum

When New Jersey's St. William Academy All Girls' Catholic School holds auditions for Romeo and Juliet, 17-year-old Ellie and her best friend Britt just assume they'll be cast in the title roles. After all, it's their senior year and they pretty much proved themselves to be the school's best actors when they played Wendy and Peter Pan.

But an unexpected rub denies their expectations and leads to realizations about themselves and their friendship in Gina Femia's charming and clever coming-of-age story, Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves, granted a very enjoyable and touching world premiere production via Boomerang Theatre Company at ART/NY's Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre.

"This is why you should never trust a cheerleader," the nurturing Ellie (Leah Nicole Raymond) advises the rambunctious Britt (Stacey Raymond) as she tends to a bloody scratch on her friend's face after an altercation set off when a cheerleader Britt had a sexual relationship with during the summer suddenly starts ignoring her now that the new school year has begun.

Though Ellie is straight, she regards Britt, who is gay, as her penguin, paired together as friends for life, and seems perfectly comfortable discussing the former's romantic and sex life.

Britt is indeed cast as Romeo, but what sets new emotions in motion is when the role of Juliet is given to Amber (Rocky Vega), who was looking forward to her senior year as a cheerleader until a broken leg removed her from the squad. Required to take on an after school activity to keep her scholarship, Amber is completely lost when it comes to acting. Though Ellie is initially baffled as to why she was cast as Mercutio and the lead ingenue role was given to an inexperienced cheerleader, the two start bonding when they realize the actor finds a sense of identity while on stage the same way the cheerleader finds it by being on the squad.

"It's just always been a place where I felt like I could breathe," Ellie says of the theatre.

They're also both obsessed with Idina Menzel singing "Defying Gravity" on the Wicked cast album.

Set in 2005, before texting and social media began dominating teenage conversation, Femia's 90-minute play highlights the trio's rebellions against the traditional gender norms enforced by their school, such as the rules against girl/girl kissing in the play and same sex dancing at the Halloween costume ball.

As a serious actor, Ellie delves deeply into her role and develops a logical backstory of Mercutio and Romeo's relationship. Seeing the parallels in her relationship with Britt, she concludes that in both Shakespeare's fiction and her real life, more than friendship is felt.

Meanwhile, Amber, whose cheerleader friends dismiss her being bisexual as just being confused, feels a new acceptance as a theatre kid and starts exploring feelings about Britt–someone her squad would reject and ridicule.

Under Scott Ebersold's direction, the trio of actors who appear to be in their 20s are totally convincing as teenagers. Like Shakespeare's adolescents of Verona, the heart-on-her-sleeve Ellie and the unruly Britt respond by impulse more than reason while the shy Amber is learning to reject repressive norms.

Designers Emmett Grosland (set), Brynne Oster-Bainnson (costumes), and Derek Van Heel (lights) provide appropriately drab school surroundings (with an ever-present cross mounted above the trio) that contrast with sound designer Sam Kaseta's energetic sounds of rock music from twenty years ago played between scenes and the darkly-humored creation Ellie whips up for her Halloween costume.

As a high school theatre kid from the 1970s, I grew up in a time when even among us creative types, anything beyond cisgender heterosexuality was kept secret, and serious media depictions we saw were usually sinister or tragic, so it's refreshing to live in a time when a play set in a high school, a Catholic school even, can show students having open, everyday conversation about such matters. Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves is a terrific choice for both younger audiences having these experiences now and adults who remember getting through them. With general admission seats in the small theatre priced at $30, it's another great example of the good affordable theatre Off-Off-Broadway has to offer.