The tradition of using Shakespeare as source material is like the sun—you can find the Bard's influence everywhere! In celebration of The Public Theatre's Free Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night playing at The Delacorte, we're looking back on all the greatness that's taken inspiration from this madcap tale of mischief. Below are five wonders of stage and screen inspired by the Shakespearean comedy, from an Elvis Presley jukebox musical to a Disney Channel original movie about (you guessed it!) motocross. If mistaken identity be the food of a raucous romantic comedy, play on!
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Plus, take a look at more movies and musicals inspired by some of Shakespeare's other works in the gallery below.
Hamlet
The Lion King
Ntsepa Pitjeng-Molebatsi in The Lion King
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
Macbeth
Scotland, PA
Cast of Scotland, PA
Romeo and Juliet
West Side Story (1959)
Original Broadway company of West Side Story
The Taming of the Shrew
Kiss Me, Kate
Kelli O'Hara and company of Kiss Me, Kate
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
The Comedy of Errors
The Boys from Syracuse (1938)
Eddie Albert and Muriel Angelus in The Boys From Syracuse
Big Business (1988)
The Tempest
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Return To The Forbidden Planet
Company of Return to the Forbidden Planet
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Jose Perez, Jerry Stiller, Raul Julia, and Clifton Davis in Two Gentlemen of Verona
Twelfth Night
All Shook Up
Nikki M. James and company of All Shook Up
Play On!
Shaina Taub and company of Twelfth Night
She's The Man (2006)
Motocrossed (2001)
Play On!
Director Sheldon Epps used Twelfth Night as the framework for a musical featuring the music of jazz pianist and composer Duke Ellington. With 1940s Harlem as the backdrop, songwriter Vy swings into New York to work for band leader Duke. To get herself, and her songs, taken more seriously, Vy disguises herself as Vy-man. Chaos ensues in Duke's Cotton Club when his "queen of the blues" Lady Liv gets it bad for Vy-man. Play On!'s short 61-performance Broadway run still earned an Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical nod for its Jester, André De Shields.
All Shook Up
When crafting the book for a musical using Elvis Presley's songbook, book writer Joe DiPietro also looked to Twelfth Night. Set in the American Midwest in the 1950s, lovestruck mechanic Natalie disguises herself as Ed in a scheme to spend more time with the guitar-playing jailbird Chad. The musical, which features 25 songs from the King of Rock and Roll, gave Cheyenne Jackson his first leading role on Broadway. Though it only played 213 performances on the Main Stem, All Shook Up has gone on to tour the U.S. and the U.K. as well as appear in regional theatres and high schools all over the country.
Motocrossed
Extreme sport meets extreme adventure in this 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie (loose) adaptation of Twelfth Night. Andrea Carson (Alana Austin) loves motocross, but her overprotective father (Timothy Carhart of the 1992 Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire) thinks she should stay out of danger. When Andrea's thrill-seeking brother Andrew is injured in a bike crash, he's no longer able to compete for a major corporate sponsorship. That's when Andrea decides to register under "Andy," taking her brother's place in a race of guts and glory for girls everywhere.
She's the Man
Early aughts teen comedy queen Amanda Bynes plucked heartthrob Channing Tatum from a Mountain Dew commercial to star alongside her in this DreamWorks Pictures cult classic. Bynes' Viola is a soccer star whose rise is interrupted when her all-girls soccer team is cut from her prep school's athletic program. When she learns her twin brother Sebastian has ditched his soccer scholarship to make it big with his band in London, Viola takes his place on the field at Illyria Prep. Disguised as her brother, Viola must room with soccer team captain Duke Orsino (played by Tatum) and navigate how she'll win his heart and her spot on the boy's team. The film won the 2006 Teen Choice Awards (basically the Oscars) for Choice Movie: Comedy and Choice Movie Actor: Breakout for Tatum.
Twelfth Night (The Musical)
In 2018, a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night took the Delacorte stage through the Public Theatre's Public Works initiative. Conceived by Kwame Kwei-Armah (Mary Jane, Jaja's African Hair Braiding) and Shaina Taub (Suffs and soon-to-be-seen in Ragtime), the cast included Ato Blankson-Wood (Cabaret, Slave Play) and Nikki M. James (Suffs). Taub, who played Feste, composed original music, earning her an MTI Award nomination for Outstanding Music. The Twelfth Night musical cast album is available anywhere you stream music.
The Public Theater's Free Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night, which began performances August 7, continues through September 14 at the newly renovated Delacorte Theater.
The cast includes Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) as Malvolio, Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Take Me Out) as Andrew Auguecheek, Lupita Nyong'o (Black Panther) as Viola, Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) as Olivia, Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent) as Maria, Junior Nyong'o as Sebastian, b (Netflix's You) as Antonio, Khris Davis (Death of a Salesman) as Orsino, John Ellison Conlee (The Full Monty) as Sir Toby Belch, Ariyan Kassam as Curio, Valentino Musumeci, Moses Sumney (MAXXXINE) as Feste, Kapil Talwalker (Night Court), Joe Tapper (You Can't Take It With You) as Sea Captain/Priest, Dario Alvarez, Jaina Rose Jallow, Precious Omigie, Chinna Palmer, Nathan M. Ramsey, Jasmine Sharma, Julian Tushabe, Adrian Villegas, Ada Westfall, and Mia Wurgaft.
Moses Sumney in Twelfth Night
Khris Davis and company of Twelfth Night
Daphne Rubin-Vega, Sandra Oh, and company of Twelfth Night
Lupita Nyong'o in Twelfth Night
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, John Ellison Conlee, and Moses Sumney in Twelfth Night
Peter Dinklage and company of Twelfth Night
Junior Nyong'o and b in Twelfth Night
Sandra Oh and Lupita Nyong'o in Twelfth Night
Sandra Oh and Junior Nyong'o in Twelfth Night
Junior Nyong'o and Lupita Nyong'o in Twelfth Night
Moses Sumney in Twelfth Night
Jesse Tyler Ferguson in Twelfth Night
Daphne Rubin-Vega and Peter Dinklage in Twelfth Night
Jesse Tyler Ferguson and company of Twelfth Night
Peter Dinklage in Twelfth Night
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, John Ellison Conlee, and Lupita Nyong'o in Twelfth Night
Joe Tapper and Lupita Nyong'o in Twelfth Night
Company of Twelfth Night
