Photos provided by Evan Zimmerman and Matthew Murphy

The tragedy of “Romeo And Juliet” has been retold and tweaked for centuries, but there’s never been a version even remotely like the hilariously irreverent “& Juliet,” which had Broadway shrieking in laughter and sold out a ton of dates on tour.

In fact, Chicago initially embraced the musical centered around the magnetic Max Martin songbook so much, it’s back at the landmark Auditorium Theatre until Sunday, August 2 and shaping up to be just as zany.

That’s because the script by an embellished edition of William Shakespeare (CJ Eldred) is totally flipped, thanks to his empowered wife Anne Hathaway (Crystal Kellogg) taking charge of the pen, striking out all the gender and sexuality stereotypes, plus turning to the words popularized by boy bands, girl groups and solo pop superstars of the 1990s through 2010s.

Credit a book by the Emmy Award-winner David West Read (“Schitt’s Creek”) for the remixed, “Larger Than Life” premise, which now wonders what it would’ve been like if the leading lady (Fabiola Caraballo Quijada) didn’t die, while being framed around the thumping beats of Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time.”

Instead, she winds up at the funeral of Romeo (Joseph Torres), in turn learning he dated many more women and men, not to mention her parents being furious when they find out about their forbidden relationship in the first place.

Though Juliet is faced with the unwelcome prospect of a convent, she runs away to France accompanied by childhood nanny Angélique (Kathryn Allison), bestie May (Nico Ochoa) and Anne’s alter-ego April, where they wind up crashing a party and meet a new friend named Francois (Noah Marlowe).

It turns out that fellow hunky guy’s father Lance, played quite naturally by the frequently fawned over Joey Fatone of actual *NSYNC fame, is super strict and forcing him to either tie the knot or join the army, resulting in the ever so appropriate Juliet duet “Overprotected.”

Feelings are also simultaneously developing in additional areas, from May coming out as non-binary throughout “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman,” alongside Lance and Angélique rekindling a previous romance of their own.

As chart-toppers such as “Oops!… I Did It Again,” “Teenage Dream,” “Break Free,” “I Kissed A Girl” and “It’s My Life” propel some of the other coming-of-age encounters, Romeo suddenly renters the picture, naively expecting everything to pick up exactly where it left off.

Shortly thereafter, the narrating couple have a quarrel that gets so heated, Hathaway breaks Shakespeare’s prized quill, meaning changes can no longer be made to the storyline and it has to return to at least the semi-traditional track, albeit with the insertion of “That’s The Way It Is,” “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back),” “It’s Gonna Be Me,” “Stronger” and “Shape Of My Heart.”

Nonetheless, the assertive characters reach their own conclusions of sorts, leaving enough room for flexibility and fluidity as Auditorium audiences are bound to “Roar” they “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” that only “& Juliet” can bring.

“& Juliet” continues at the Auditorium Theatre through Sunday, August 2. For additional details, visit AndJulietBroadway.com, AuditoriumTheatre.org and BroadwayInChicago.com.

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