Yes, it’s arguably Shakespeare’s greatest comedy. And yes, the current Shakespeare in the Park production is lovely, as our own David Cote reports. But can we please take a break from Twelfth Night?

It’s not that we don’t enjoy the capers of the curiously intersexual Viola and her madcap cohorts. But any delight can be cheapened by excess, and Twelfth Nights are now a dime a dozen. Consider the past year alone. Did you miss the play when it was performed as part of the Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot series last July? Then you could have caught it in August at Riverside State Park—or later in August on Governors Island. In October, there it was again at the T. Schreiber Studio; in November, Urban Stages. Two more productions came in January, one at the Theatre Row and the other at the Pearl. Downtown Art hosted Twelfth Night in March, and this past month saw the debut not only of the vaunted Central Park production but also of an overshadowed one down at the Flea.

That makes at least ten Twelfth Nights in New York in the past year alone. If we’re not mistaken, didn’t Shakespeare write some other pretty good comedies? Here is what we will: A temporary moratorium on productions of this dangerously overexposed classic. Let’s all take a year off, shall we? If Twelfth Night be the food of love, it’s starting to seem played out.