I’m fond of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (especially the 1996 film version starring:
Helena Bonham Carter Richard E. Grant Nigel Hawthorne Ben Kingsley Mel Smith Imelda Staunton Toby Stephens Imogen Stubbs |
When this local production of a musical version of Twelfth Night showed up, Diane and I went to see it. The musical opens with an accordion-playing Jester who sets the scene.
On Twelfth Night, Viola and Sebastian are young twins who are performing on a ship and use their likeness to entertain their audiences. During their journey, Viola and Sebastian are caught in a storm, shipwrecked, and separated. Viola and other survivors end up on the shore of Illyria. A devastated Viola believes her brother is dead. Viola decides to pretend she’s a young man and disguises hereself to join the court of the local Duke Orsino . Viola becomes a page, using the name “Cesario”.
Violia’s boss, Duke Orsino, is madly infatuated with Countess Olivia , who is in mourning due to her brother’s recent death. The Countess uses the tragedy as an excuse to avoid seeing the Duke, whom she does not love. The Duke sends Cesario to the Countess to do his wooing and Olivia falls in love with the messenger, unaware of Cesario’s real gender. Realizing Olivia’s feelings for her, Viola is caught in even more of a quandary when she realizes that she is now in love with her boss, Duke Orsino.
A lot of silliness follows as the plot moves toward a final resolution of the couples love interests. The music in this production had a jazzy flavor that fit the antics on the stage. Of course, for Shakespeare purists, this would be a travesty. But we enjoyed it. Are you a fan of Twelfth Night? GRADE: B
You did a swell job of explaining the plot but one look at the cast and their modern costumes turned me off completely! I’m probably not highbrow enough for Shakespeare, anyway! When I had to do a soliloquy in Theatre class in college I stunk up the stage, so maybe I have a sensitive sore spot for The Bard!
Bob, our English teacher in 10th Grade had us memorize and recite (in front of the class) monologues from Shakespeare. It was NOT a popular exercise!
I love Twelfth Night. One of my favorites.
Patti, I’m very fond of that film version. This musical version was wacky but entertaining!
Yes, but it’s been a long time.
As a matter of fact, there have been several different musical adaptation os TWELFTH NIGHT. The first one listed in Wikipedia was the one we saw when we were first dating – YOUR OWN THING, which ran for a very successful 937 performances off-Broadway in Greenwich Village. It opened in January of 1968 and we saw it that November or December. Leland Palmer played Viola, but I remember seeing Bonnie Franklin, and she was indeed one of the replacement Violas (Sandy Duncan was another).
Jeff, I would have loved to have seen Sandy Duncan in TWELFTH NIGHT!
NEWS
THE EDUCATION GRADEBOOK
Hillsborough schools cut back on Shakespeare, citing new Florida rules
The decision is aimed at better performance on state tests and avoiding sexual content found in some of the Bard’s work.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/08/07/hillsborough-schools-cut-back-shakespeare-citing-new-florida-rules/
Todd, after I read some Shakespeare, I tend to write better.
As a senior in my Honolulu private HS, I performed in the Shakespeare Festival, and for petty reasons (I’d think–they weren’t ever mentioned to me at all. much less explained) I was the only participant who wasn’t given a copy of the Complete Shakes after the festival was over. Much as, the previous year, I wasn’t mentioned in the assembly about this among the NMSQT Semi-Finalists, despite having the highest scores in the school and probably the state in 1981. There was little love lost between me and my second HS’s admin, at least the grade’s dean, a real clown, and they never missed a trick in demonstrating as much. Among the characters I assayed in 12th grade was Sir Toby Belch…I wasn’t terribly good, but I had I think appropriate fun with it. (I played Horatio to my old friend Jared Sanford’s Hamlet, as well…he’s gone on to a career in mostly indy films, most often working with his good friend Anna Biller.) I like TWELTH NIGHT, is the all but lost point, I guess.
Also Hortensio, in TAMING…this one gave me and the young woman playing Bianca the opportunity to read from the script while supposedly attempting the music on the page before us…why, who’s in the middle of an annoying and tiring task and doing Anything but continuing? Simultaneous nostalgia and anti-nostalgia at the drop of title.
Todd, I’m sure TAMING OF THE SHREW is banned in Florida.
Todd, you would love the film version of TWELTH NIGHT I recommended.
I’ve seen it and recall enjoying it.
Here’s a heads-up for you, just now being published after some delay:
https://www.nesfa.org/book/living-in-the-future-2/ Robert Silverberg’s third essay collection…
Todd, thanks for the link! I’m ordering the new Silverberg book now!
Twelfth Night by Shakespeare surprised me a bit – then I found:
In German it’s called:
Was Ihr wollt (What you want)
I think I saw it as a teenager but don’t remember anything – I preferred stuff like MacBeth or Hamlet, maybe also Romeo and Julia.
Since I studied Latin instead of English at school (first foreign language was French) I didn’t get to read English authors.
Wolf, TWELFTH NIGHT is more light-hearted fare than Hamlet and MacBeth.
Well, Wolf, WS’s original title (as published, at least!) for TWELTH NIGHT is TWELTH NIGHT, OR WHAT YOU WILL. Teenagers are prone to prefer ROMEO AND JULIET!
Todd, the gender disguise might appeal to today’s youth.
And, clearly, recent exhaustion is showing again, as I haven’t spelled TWELFTH correctly once (and the spellchecker hasn’t once gotten on me about it).