SOURCE: "Fiddling While Rome Burns," in Theatre Arts, Vol. XXV, No. 1, January, 1941, pp. 6-19.

With a Presidential campaign behind us and preparedness ahead, with Europe's capitals in flames and war spreading like an insane octopus all over the habitable globe, Broadway takes time off for comedy, more comedy, nothing but comedy. As though fearful lest the dark thoughts that shadow us by day, that blacken newspaper headlines and blare at us through the air, should cross the threshold of the twenty-odd playhouses now open along Broadway, producers, authors, musicians and actors have united in a conspiracy of laughter. The latest recruit to the army of good cheer is no other than Shakespeare himself. Twelfth Night is true holiday fare, a light-hearted masque full of music, lovers, clowns, absurdities—What You Will—as its author cheerfully indicates. Written three hundred years ago as a divertissement for the January Sixth...