ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses two jukebox-musical versions of Twelfth Night – Play On! conceived by the director Sheldon Epps. Play On! began its first run in 1996 at The Old Globe in San Diego, a theatre designed as a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre in London in which many of William Shakespeare's plays were originally performed. Play On! sets itself out clearly as an adaptation of Twelfth Night. Many of the characters' names map easily on to those of Shakespeare's characters. Play On's performance style thus not only conveys the onstage plot, but also alludes to a significant period in African-American performance history. The potential for individual characters to be ghosted by more than one historical figure while also displaying a readily identifiable relationship to Shakespeare's characters thus obstructs a reception of Play On! either as a coded musical biography or as straightforward musicalisation of Twelfth Night.
