Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare
Adaptation Conceived by Kwame Kwei-Armah & Shaina Taub
Music & Lyrics by Shaina Taub
Los Altos Stage Company
One early line in William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, Twelfth Night, has inspired a host of musical adaptations through the years: “If music be the food of love, play on.” In 2018, New York’s Public Theatre premiered for the musical theatre stage a version conceived by Kwame Kwei-Armah & Shaina Taub, with Taub also creating the music and lyrics — the music covering a wide range of styles and eras including jazz, Motown, ’80s rock, Vaudeville, and Broadway show tune style.
Los Altos Stage Company opens Shaina Taub’s Twelfth Night in a seaside Illyria where cultures, races, gender expressions, and ages of its citizens are as wide ranged as the music filling its center square. The setting’s era could be almost any one’s guess since there are hints of decades galore in both costumes and the music itself. A cast of seventeen brings great enthusiasm and lots of tomfoolery in a production that overall amuses and entertains if not always completely hits the mark.
Please continue to Talkin’Broadway for the rest of my review.
Rating: 3 E
Photo Credit: Evelyn Huynh
Twelfth Night continues through June 22, 2025, in a one-hour, forty-minute (no intermission) production by Los Altos Stage Company, 97 Hillview Avenue, Los Altos, CA. Tickets are available online at https://losaltosstage.org/; in person Thursday and Friday, 3 – 6 p.m. at the theatre’s box office; or by phone at 650-941-0551.
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