Fueled by all the requisite contrivances that come with the territory (mismatched lovers, mistaken identities and such), Shakespeare’s famous romantic comedy “Twelfth Night” involves a pair of twins, Viola and Sebastian, both of whom presumes the other has perished at sea, after a shipwreck washes them ashore on separate beaches in the mythical land of Illyria.
Viola proceeds to masquerade as Cesario, the dutiful “manservant” to Duke Orsino, who enlists his new page to help him woo the fair maiden Olivia. Viola inevitably falls for the Duke; Olivia inevitably falls for Cesario; and once he arrives on the scene, inevitably, Sebastian falls for Olivia.
The plot might seem as vaguely familiar as it can be to most of us in the audience, as though we’d seen it all before, if not in this particular play, then in any number of the Bard’s other works in this vein. To the credit of John R. Briggs – he adapted the script, co-wrote the songs and directs the show – Georgia Shakespeare’s production of “Illyria: A Twelfth Night Musical” puts enough of an original stamp on the material to offset some of its more formulaic aspects.
But the overall results are uneven. Viola/Cesario, Olivia, Orsino and Sebastian, for instance, essentially become the secondary characters in this version of events, in deference to emphasizing the supporting clowns in the story (Malvolio, Sir Toby Belch, et al.).
In terms of the casting, there’s also a clear distinction between which members of the ensemble are the classically trained actors (regardless of their singing abilities) and which members are the similarly versed singers (regardless of their acting skills).
In “Shrew,” the Briggs-conceived musical treatment of “The Taming of the Shrew” the company performed in 1993 and 2010, the songs were of a unified piece, namely done in the style of an old Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie. Here, most of the songs (co-written by Eric Frampton) basically function as stand-alone pieces instead, running a gamut that wavers willy-nilly between rock, country, jazz, gospel, doo-wop, tango and calypso.
The spirited production numbers (choreographed by Jen MacQueen) primarily utilize a canned instrumental track, although music director Seth Davis occasionally provides live accompaniment on an electronic keyboard. Impressively, a couple of tunes feature co-stars Travis Smith and Eugene H. Russell IV (as the fools Feste and Fabian) on guitar and saxophone, respectively.
For all of the belabored buffoonery of those caterwauling clowns (played by the likes of Chris Kayser, Allen O’Reilly and Mark Cabus, with Megan McFarland a delightful standout as the buxom maid Maria), the hilarious highlight of the show belongs to Courtney Patterson’s Viola/Cesario and Joe Knezevich’s Orsino trading shots of tequila.
A real mixed bag, this remounted “Illyria” (Briggs first staged it for the troupe in 1996) offers a little bit of something for everyone – which doesn’t necessarily mean that it always adds up to much on the whole.
THEATER REVIEW
“Illyria: A Twelfth Night Musical”
Grade: B-
Through Aug. 5 (in rotating repertory with “Much Ado About Nothing,” opening June 22, and “The Importance of Being Earnest,” opening July 6). 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays; 7 p.m. Sundays (no performances June 19-20). $15-$45. Conant Performing Arts Center (at Oglethorpe University), 4484 Peachtree Rd. NE, Atlanta. 404-504-1473. gashakespeare.org.
Bottom line: Some parts sink, some parts swim.
