Musical Mondays: Twelfth Night

Shakespeare in the Park has been a New York summer staple since the 1960’s, though it has only been known by this name since 2002. The always-free shows are put on by The Public Theater and take place in the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. I have been fortunate enough to now see three productions put on by Shakespeare in the Park: The Tempest in 2015, Julius Caesar in 2017, and Twelfth Night last week. With respect to the first two productions, which I did enjoy, Twelfth Night was by far my favorite.

Let’s start off with this: this was a musical rendition of Twelfth Night with the music written by Shaina Taub. The Public Theater first put on the musical in 2016, and two years later it made its way to Central Park. We’ll touch on the staging, music, and performances that really made the show, but first I want to note that perhaps what made this as much fun as it could be was the inclusion of so many community groups to be involved in the production. This was theater that had different ages, different races, different bodies, different backgrounds coming together—amateur and professional—to create one coherent, beautiful piece of theater. It worked.

The play staging was mostly simple once it began, but audience members were invited to be on stage prior to the beginning with all of the ensemble acting as if there was a community square—a younger girl drawing caricatures, large checkers sets, and even a jump rope. It was another way this felt like truly inclusive theater, and it put a smile on most of the audience before the production begin. Here is a wonderful look of my incredibly beautiful girlfriend and I, looking like a major dork, on stage before the production.

Shaina Taub did something wonderful with the music in the piece—it flows fairly seamlessly from iambic pentameter to R&B soulful pieces, rock ballads, and folksy numbers. The music varies throughout, but it all fits really well into the mood of the show. While the show maintains Shakespeare’s original words, it also maintains the original wit, humor, and intelligence. The music only works to enhance these facets, not detract from them. Though there is an album on Bandcamp now of Ms. Taub performing the songs, I am incredibly excited to hear that there will be a cast album featuring the large, wonderful ensemble!

The last important thing I want to touch on is that there really was a good integration of the amateurs and the professions. The cast features two Tony Award Winners in Nikki M. James (Book of Mormon) and Shuler Hensley (Oklahoma!), but these incredibly talented actors didn’t make the amateur with which they performed seem anything “less than” or any less of an important part of the cast. The direction and production of this piece made every one seem like an essential part of the cast.

Twelfth Night is now closed, but it will always be remembered by me (either through the cast album or reminiscing) as one of the best examples of what public theater really should be.