'TWELFTH NIGHT'S' SECOND WIND SAY WHAT YOU WILL - SHAKESPEARE'S COMEDY IS STORMING SOUTHLAND THEATERS.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

'If music be the food of love, play on,'' moans Illyria's Duke Orsino at the opening of William Shakespeare's ``Twelfth Night.'' ``Give me excess of it.''

The Bard's melancholy comedy is indeed playing on ... and on ... and on. You want ``excess of it''? How about two productions playing now, including the Globe Theatre's tour of ``Twelfth Night'' through Sunday at UCLA's Freud Playhouse celebrating the play's 400th anniversary? A midweek production plays at Theatre 40 on the campus of Beverly Hills High School. NoHo's Company Rep opens its production in November, and yet another arrives in the spring at Glendale's classical company, A Noise Within.

And those are just the ones we know about now.

Cheaper by the dozen

``Twelfth Night or What You Will'' may not be Shakespeare's most frequently produced comedy, but it's certainly the Renaissance flavor of the month. Make that of the season.

Anybody who has seen or read the play can probably figure out why: great love story, great comic energy, great characters. And for actresses, there aren't many better parts than Viola, the cross-dressing, lovelorn heroine. Helen Hunt, Julia Stiles, Emily Watson and ``Bend It Like Beckham's'' Parminder Nagra have all taken on the part in the last five years, joining Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Marsha Mason, Imogen Stubbs, Blythe Danner and even Judi Dench on the list of Viola players.

``Rosalind (in ``As You Like It'') may have more lines,'' concedes Michael Arndt, artistic director of the Thousand Oaks-based Kingsmen Shakespeare Company, which staged ``Twelfth Night'' last summer, ``but Viola I think in many ways is more interesting.''

``She's a little more laid back, not as much in control,'' says Julia Coffey, who played Viola last summer at Kingsmen and played Rosalind for Kingsmen two seasons earlier. ``The audience just loves her, more than I think they loved Rosalind. Even when we're a couple of steps ahead of her, we can't wait for her to catch up.''

``The thing is, she's on pause, and the play suggests that you can't live your life on pause,'' adds Brian Kulick, who directed Stiles in the New York Shakespeare's Festival's production in the summer of 2002. ``This is a person on the cusp of becoming an adult, becoming responsible and taking charge. Ultimately, she has to make a huge leap of heart. I think everyone has been Viola at one point in their lives.''

Separated from her identical twin brother, Sebastian, during a storm, Viola washes up on the shores of Illyria, disguises herself as a boy, renames herself Cesario and serves moody duke Orsino, with whom she falls in love. Orsino sends Cesario to woo Lady Olivia, who promptly falls in love with the disguised Viola.

The comic second plot involves the revels of Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Feste the jester and Maria, who conspire to trick Olivia's Puritan steward Malvolio into believing that Olivia is in love with him. Eventually Sebastian arrives, throwing everything into further confusion.

Gender bender

Women were not permitted to act on the Elizabethan stage, meaning Viola and Olivia would originally have been played by men. The Globe Theatre's ``Twelfth Night'' is performed in Elizabethan costumes with music and props that fit the time. And with an all-male cast. Company artistic director Mark Rylance plays Olivia and Michael Brown is Viola.

Something obviously struck a chord. The London run sold out and the 15-performance sojourn at UCLA's Freud Playhouse is considered a hot ticket as well. That's right: Strictly traditional Shakespeare is packing the seats in L.A.

``Our decision to set the play in an Elizabethan world might have seemed a rather obvious choice, but actually it was rather radical,'' says director Tim Carroll. ``The play is always updated to what seems, to me, a very unilluminating Edwardian or Victorian setting. I've never understood why people update from one archaic locked period to another.''

``It was like watching something that had been written two years ago,'' UCLA Live director David Sefton says of the production, which he saw in London. ``The comedy and language were totally communicated in such an accessible way. It was funny, clever, witty - one of the best things I've seen in the past two years.''

As with so many of Shakespeare's plays - particularly the comedies - ``Twelfth Night'' routinely gets updated or transplanted to a different setting. The current and upcoming L.A. ``Twelfth Nights'' will look nothing like each other, their directors promise.

Steven Williams' production for Theatre 40 uses six actors for all the roles, including some creative doubling. For the Company Rep, director Anne McNaughton is setting her production along the Barbary Coast of Africa in the 1800s, giving it an Arabian Nights feel, according to company artistic director Hope Alexander.

By the time her production opens, both the Globe's and Theatre 40's ``Twelfth Nights'' will have closed, giving the Company Rep, at least temporarily, an open field.

``As long as everyone isn't 'Twelfth Night-ed' out,'' says Alexander.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

TWELFTH NIGHT

Where: UCLA's Freud Playhouse, Westwood.

When: 8 p.m. today through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 8 p.m. Sunday; through Sunday.

Tickets: $40 to $60. Call [phone].

Where: Theatre 40, Reuben Cordova Theatre, 241 Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills.

When: 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; through Nov. 12.

Tickets: $15. Call [phone].

Where: Company Rep, 5112 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.

When: Previews begin Nov. 13. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays; through Dec. 21 (plays in rotating repertory with ``A Christmas Carol'').

Tickets: $20 to $22.50. Call [phone].

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Photo:

Yael Berkovich, left, Michael Bonnabel and Amy Tolsky star in Theatre 40's production of ``Twelfth Night,'' one of at least four stagings of the play currently running or scheduled to run in the area.