Review - Twelfth Night

Hey, did you miss me?  I hope so!  I'm also hoping to get blogging with a renewed vigor.  We'll see how that goes.  I guess I shouldn't promise anything since I'll be on vacation with Tennis Week next week...  :)

I'm very fortunate that I work with people who want to see shows with me for many different reasons - to support my imaginary boyfriends, or to support my favorite writers, or to have cocktails first, or to check out shows that should be on my awards night radar.  Last weekend, I went with one of my bosses to check out a musical that should be on everyone's radar, thank you very much: Twelfth Night, as presented by the Public Theater in Central Park.

I caught this photo pre-show!

This particular adaptation of Twelfth Night was done previously at the Public for a few performances in 2016 as part of their Public Works program.  Public Works uses professional performers and  community-based groups of performers alongside each other on stage.  There are over 100 performers used in Twelfth Night, divided into two groups, the Red ensemble and the Blue ensemble.  We saw the Blue ensemble cast and they were wonderful.  Seeing such a diverse group of people onstage was inspiring and, may I say, brought a tear to my eye more than once throughout the evening.  I was also thrilled to see that the show was signed and used members of the New York Deaf Theatre seamlessly.

photo credit: Joan Marcus (Shaina Taub is center, with accordion)

The highlight of this particular production of Twelfth Night was the fantastic original score by singer/songwriter Shaina Taub.  I've long been fan of Shaina Taub's - she performed at an event I attended several years ago and the song she performed just hit me in all the right places.  I bought the song on iTunes and have loved listening to it ever since.  When her name is attached to something, I immediately pay attention.  I went to see the return engagement of Old Hats at Signature because she was now on board (I bought those tunes, too); a TedX Broadway talk featuring Broadway people was made more interesting to me because she was there.  The two songs she sang that day were simply incredible and I was once again happy to buy them online.  I highly recommend your checking out some of her music:  that first song that drew me in was "The Visitors" and her TedX Broadway performances were "Huddled Masses" and "Where are the Grown-ups?".  You can also hear her demo recording of Twelfth Night online, if you're so inclined.  Which you should be.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

Her music just made the experience of seeing Twelfth Night a joyful one.  I thought she chose just the right spots to musicalize and her lyrics smartly jumped off from Shakespeare's text and went to someplace contemporary and just slightly off-kilter.  It was a terrific marriage of text and music.  And her music brought everyone in the entire cast on stage in really clever ways.  I will confess that cutting the show to a 90-minute run time made me happy because we went on a Friday night, but also made me sad that a lot of that delicious, rueful, longing musical language of Shakespeare's had to be cut, but that's ok.  I found this delightful, heartfelt and tuneful incarnation to be just the thing to see on a summer night.

The performers were all terrific - Nikki M James was a wonderful Viola and her solo songs were beautiful interpretations of her dilemmas.  Ato Blankson-Wood was a romantic, yet no-nonsense Orsino and his self-centered pursuit of Olivia was realistic, as was his gradual realization of his love for Viola stemmed from his respect for his page (Viola in disguise).  And Andrew Kober was a magnificent Malvolio - pompous and haughty, but oh so clever and with a backstory that made his imprisonment at the end seem even more lonely.  His production numbers were first-rate and gosh, his voice was amazing!  But, really, every single person on that stage was committed and authentic and wonderfully realized.  This whole project just seems to be the celebration of life, of theater, and of the Public Theater's mission of 'theater for all' that we all need right now.  You have one more week to see this delightful confection - go!