I thought I was going to dislike Twelfth Night. I was worried that this musical version of Shakespeare’s play, conceived by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Shaina Taub with music and lyrics by Taub, would ruin what Austin Tichenor called “the Hamlet of the comedies.” Why mess with Shakespeare’s original greatness? But the show was great. The production was directed by Steve Hogle and Emily Rozek, who were assisted by Susan Knight, and the music director was Steve Zimmerman, who also conducted the absolutely killer orchestra.
Twelfth Night is about Viola, who, after being shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, disguises herself as a man and works for Duke Orsino. It is a comedy of errors involving a love triangle between Orsino, Viola, and Countess Olivia, mistaken identities, and a very funny subplot involving Olivia’s servants. The show does largely use Shakespeare’s original dialogue, combined with energetic, fun, and jazzy music and dancing.
The teen cast was phenomenal. Sofia Perez as Viola was the impressive center of the show, with brilliant stage presence. Theo Browning as Orsino was also wonderful, and I could clearly see how tortured his character was. Chloe Novoa as Olivia was very believably obsessive, regal, and commanding. Drew Ingle as Sebastian has the best vocals I have ever heard in my life, and he was able to portray so much emotion in his face. The fool in Twelfth Night, the wisecracker Feste, was played by Sydney Medlar, who has a particularly beautiful singing voice. Ella Landis played the more comic fool, Sir Toby Belch, portrayed a believably funny drunk, and her chemistry with Benjamin Schaper as Sir Andrew and Francesca Peach as Maria (pronounced MA-RY-UH) was lovely. Schaper seemed realistically in pain from a stage punch, and Peach was both humorously annoyed at and friendly with the fools. Another character that is annoyed, but never friendly with the fools, is Malvolio, who was played by Daniel Shapiro. His humorous and grumpy stage presence stole every scene he was in, and he was able to balance the sympathetic and unsympathetic parts of the character. The ensemble was wonderful as the people of Illyria, and should be commended for how much time they spent onstage. They sang and danced with great talent and gave the show its fun vibe.
The production aspects were executed very well. The production had a simple set, done by Alecia Hurst Walton and built with Gerald Browning, but it included a fountain that spurted actual water, and the set was very effective at helping with the environment of Illyria. The costumes by Janice Jacobson, Jill Meisner, Nicky Peach, and Kim Rayner were a pastiche of outfits from different times, which I think signifies how the time of the play does not matter. Hogle and Rozek also provided the choreography, which was very complicated and carefree at the same time. This show was double, meaning that two actors were cast in the same role and each went on as that character on different nights, and I feel very sad that I could not attend both nights since I know that the other cast also has a large amount of talent in it.
