Stage
Musicals
Due to its themes such as young women seeking independence in a "man's world", "gender bending" and "same sex attraction",[34] there have been a number of re-workings for the stage, particularly in musical theatre, among them Your Own Thing (1968), Music Is (1977), All Shook Up (2005), and Play On! (1997), the last two jukebox musicals featuring the music of Elvis Presley and Duke Ellington, respectively. Another adaptation is Illyria (2002) by composer Pete Mills, which continues to perform regularly throughout the United States. In 2018, the Public Theatre workshopped and premiered a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night with original music by Shaina Taub, who also played the role of Feste.[35] In 1999, the play was adapted as Epiphany by the Takarazuka Revue, adding more overt commentary on the role of theatre and actors, as well as gender as applied to the stage (made more layered by the fact that all roles in this production were played by women).[36][37] There are many new modern plays but mostly still played in Early Modern English.
Plays
Theatre Grottesco, a Lecocq-inspired company based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, created a modern version of the play from the point of view of the servants working for Duke Orsino and Lady Olivia, entitled Grottesco's 12th Night (2008).[38][39] The adaptation takes a much deeper look at the issues of classism, and society without leadership. In New York City, Turn to Flesh Productions, a theatre company that specializes in creating "new Shakespeare shows", developed two plays focused on Malvolio: A Comedy of Heirors, or The Imposters by verse playwright, Emily C. A. Snyder, which imagined a disgraced Malvolio chasing down two pairs of female twins in Syracuse and Ephesus, and Malvolio's Revenge by verse playwright, Duncan Pflaster, a queer sequel to Twelfth Night.[40][41][42][43] Both plays were originally written for submission to the American Shakespeare Center's call for plays in conversation with the Bard through the Shakespeare's New Contemporaries program.
Film
- 1910: Vitagraph Studios released the silent, short adaptation Twelfth Night starring actors Florence Turner, Julia Swayne Gordon, and Marin Sais.
- 1985: Just One of the Guys, directed by Lisa Gottlieb titled, is a loose update of the story set in a modern high school.
- 1986: 1986 Australian film, an Australian production.
- 1996: Twelfth Night, Or What You Will, adapted and directed by Trevor Nunn and set in the 19th century, stars Imogen Stubbs as Viola, Helena Bonham Carter as Olivia, and Toby Stephens as Duke Orsino. The film also features Mel Smith as Sir Toby, Richard E. Grant as Sir Andrew, Ben Kingsley as Feste, Imelda Staunton as Maria, and Nigel Hawthorne as Malvolio. Much of the comic material was downplayed into straightforward drama, and the film received some criticism for this.[44]
- 1998: Shakespeare in Love contains several references to Twelfth Night. "Viola" (Gwyneth Paltrow) is the daughter of a wealthy merchant who disguises herself as a boy to become an actor. Near the end of the movie, Elizabeth I (Judi Dench) asks Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) to write a comedy for the Twelfth Night holiday. Viola is presented in the final scene of the film as Shakespeare's inspiration for the heroine of Twelfth Night. In a nod to the shipwrecked opening of the play, the movie includes a scene where the character Viola, separated from her love by an arranged marriage and bound for the American colonies, survives a shipwreck and comes ashore to Virginia.
- 2001: Disney Channel Original Movie Motocrossed sets the story in the world of motocross racing.
- 2004: Wicker Park has Rose Byrne's character Alex plays Viola in an amateur production of Twelfth Night.
- 2006: She's the Man updates the story as a contemporary teenage comedy. It is set in a prep school named Illyria and incorporates the names of the play's major characters. The story was changed to revolve around the idea of soccer rivalry but the twisted character romance remained the same as the original. Viola, the main character, pretends to be her brother Sebastian, and a girl named Olivia falls in love with Viola as Sebastian. Two of Duke's Illyria soccer teammates are named Andrew and Toby. A nod is given to the omitted subplot by naming a briefly-onscreen tarantula Malvolio. Sebastian's ex-girlfriend Monique was given the surname Valentine, the meddling Malcolm was given the surname Festes, and Viola's friend and hair stylist Paul was given the surname Antonio.
- 2018: Adam Smethurst adapted and directed this version set in the 21st century. The film stars Sheila Atim as Viola and Sebastian, Dominic Coleman as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Zackary Momoh as Antonio, and Simon Nagra as Sir Toby Belch.
Television
On 14 May 1937, the BBC Television Service in London broadcast a thirty-minute excerpt of the play, the first known instance of a work of Shakespeare being performed on television. Produced for the new medium by George More O'Ferrall, the production is also notable for having featured a young actress who would later go on to win an Academy Award – Greer Garson. As the performance was transmitted live from the BBC's studios at Alexandra Palace and the technology to record television programmes did not at the time exist, no visual record survives other than still photographs.[45]
The entire play was produced for television in 1939, directed by Michel Saint-Denis and starring another future Oscar-winner, Peggy Ashcroft. The part of Sir Toby Belch was taken by a young George Devine.
In 1957, another adaptation of the play was presented by NBC on U.S. television's Hallmark Hall of Fame, with Maurice Evans recreating his performance as Malvolio. This was the first colour version ever produced on TV. Dennis King, Rosemary Harris, and Frances Hyland co-starred.
In 1964, there was a Canadian TV version directed by George McCowan with Martha Henry as Viola, then in 1966 there was an Australian TV version.
Another version for UK television was produced in 1969, directed by John Sichel and John Dexter. The production featured Joan Plowright as Viola and Sebastian, Alec Guinness as Malvolio, Ralph Richardson as Sir Toby Belch, and Tommy Steele as an unusually prominent Feste.
Yet another TV adaptation followed in 1980. This version was part of the BBC Television Shakespeare series and featured Felicity Kendal in the role of Viola, Sinéad Cusack as Olivia, Alec McCowen as Malvolio, and Robert Hardy as Sir Toby Belch.
In 1988, Kenneth Branagh's stage production of the play, starring Frances Barber as Viola and Richard Briers as Malvolio, was adapted for Thames Television.
In 1998 the Lincoln Center Theater production directed by Nicholas Hytner was broadcast on PBS Live From Lincoln Center. It starred Helen Hunt as Viola, Paul Rudd as Orsino, Kyra Sedgwick as Olivia, Philip Bosco as Malvolio, Brian Murray as Sir Toby, Max Wright as Sir Andrew, and David Patrick Kelly as Feste.
A 2003 tele-movie adapted and directed by Tim Supple is set in the present day. It features David Troughton as Sir Toby, and is notable for its multi-ethnic cast including Parminder Nagra as Viola and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Orsino. Its portrayal of Viola and Sebastian's arrival in Illyria is reminiscent of news footage of asylum seekers.
An episode of the British series Skins, entitled Grace, featured the main characters playing Twelfth Night, with a love triangle between Franky, Liv and Matty, who respectively played Viola, Olivia, and Orsino.
Radio
An adaptation of Twelfth Night by Cathleen Nesbitt for the BBC was the first complete Shakespeare play ever broadcast on British radio. This occurred on 28 May 1923, with Nesbitt as both Viola and Sebastian, and Gerald Lawrence as Orsino.[46]
In 1937 an adaptation was performed on the CBS Radio Playhouse starring Orson Welles as Orsino and Tallulah Bankhead as Viola. A year later, Welles played Malvolio in a production with his Mercury Theater Company.
There have been several full adaptations on BBC Radio. A 1982 BBC Radio 4 broadcast featured Alec McCowen as Orsino, Wendy Murray as Viola, Norman Rodway as Sir Toby Belch, Andrew Sachs as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Bernard Hepton as Malvolio; in 1993, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a version of the play (set on a Caribbean Island), with Michael Maloney as Orsino, Eve Matheson as Viola, Iain Cuthbertson as Malvolio, and Joss Ackland as Sir Toby Belch; this adaptation was broadcast again on 6 January 2011 by BBC Radio 7 (now Radio 4 Extra). 1998 saw another Radio 3 adaptation, with Michael Maloney, again as Orsino, Josette Simon as Olivia and Nicky Henson as Feste. In April 2012, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a version directed by Sally Avens, with Paul Ready as Orsino, Naomi Frederick as Viola, David Tennant as Malvolio, and Ron Cook as Sir Toby Belch.
Music
Operas based on Twelfth Night include Bedřich Smetana's unfinished Viola (1874, 1883–1884), Karel Weis's Blíženci (1892, 2nd version 1917), Ivan Jirko's Večer tříkrálový (1964) and Jan Klusák's Dvanáctá noc (1989).
A stage music based on Twelfth Night was composed in 1907 by Engelbert Humperdinck,[47] famous for his fairy-tale opera "Hänsel und Gretel".
Overtures based on Twelfth Night have been composed by Alexander Campbell Mackenzie (1888); Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Johan Wagenaar.
"O Mistress Mine" (Act II, Scene 3) has been set to music as a solo song by many composers,[48] including Thomas Morley (also arranged by Percy Grainger, 1903); Arthur Sullivan (1866);[49] Hubert Parry (1886);[50] Charles Villiers Stanford (1896); Amy Beach (1897);[51] R. H. Walthew (1898);[52] W. Augustus Barratt (1903);[53] Roger Quilter (1905); Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1906); Benjamin Dale (1919); Peter Warlock (1924); Arthur Somervell (1927); Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1936); Gerald Finzi (1942); Erich Korngold (1943); Peter Racine Fricker (1961); Sven-Eric Johanson (1974); Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (1984); Dave Matthews (2014); Paul Kelly (2016); David Barton (2019).[54] Other settings for mixed voices have been composed by Herbert Brewer and Herbert Murrill amongst others.
"Come Away, Come Away, Death" (Act II, Scene 4) has been set to music by composers Gerald Finzi (1942), Erich Korngold (1943), Roger Quilter, and Jean Sibelius (in a Swedish translation Kom nu hit in 1957).
In 1943, Erich Korngold also set the songs "Adieu, Good Man Devil" (Act IV, Scene 2), "Hey, Robin" (Act IV, Scene 2), and "For the Rain, It Raineth Every Day" (Act V, Scene 1) as a song cycle entitled Narrenlieder, Op. 29.
