Sometimes productions of Shakespeare sound like a plug for real estate: Location, Location, Location. This past year, we’ve had Romeo and Juliet in the Middle East, Much Ado in a Latin clime, and Twelfth Night set in a 1950s beachside resort. These choices have resulted in varying degrees of success. Desert Rose Theatre is offering their version of Twelfth Night, and stamped it with their choice of Location: a lounge straight out of Doris Day and Rock Hudson’s late 50s and early 60s. Cat’s eyes and thin ties. Turquoise is the dominant color and swooping shapes are the patterns. Feste (Jere Van Patten) is a lounge singer, Duke Orsino (Joshua Scott Hunt) is a playboy, Olivia (Amy Nativio) is a jetsetter, and upon landing in this ultrachic setting and turning into a man to hide herself, Viola (Jennifer Shoemaker) morphs into a member of Herman’s Hermits. The set Katherine Stewart and her clan have created is their best ever, right down to the fuzzy lampshades on the tiny bar tables. It looks marvelous. And it cramps their style. Somewhere along the line, this play that celebrates love and life, disguises and discoveries became more about the trappings than the tale.

There are several good performances inside the lounge, although the lines and cadences seem to overwhelm most of the players at various points. And whose lounge is it anyway? The stunning set breaks the logic of the piece. Is it Orsino’s? Is it Olivia’s? Is it a neutral location, because if so, why do Sir Toby (Garry Myers) and Sir Andrew (Fred Gerle) start a party that draws Maria (Kandyce Hughes) and Malvolio (Gary Helmbold) from their chambers in their nightclothes? And why does Malvolio leave with his mistresses’ ring to catch the recently departed Viola by going back to where she just left. It may not really matter, but how can Andrew and Viola fight with swords here? Wouldn’t they at least take it outside? It’s all so confusing, and you can just hear the echo of, “Hey, how cool would it be if we set Twelfth Night in a 1960s lounge?” It is cool, but a set should serve, not stifle.

Shoemaker’s Viola is a good bit of acting. Her mop of a wig often gets in her eyes and distracts, but her dialogues with Hunt and with Nativio are very enjoyable. For his part, Hunt is one of the actors who seems ill-at-ease with his lines, and though he connects well with his ensemble, he rushes through a few of his soliloquies. Nativio’s Olivia is a flighty creature, good for the era but hard to hear with her trilling voice and screechy reactions.

Myers’ Belch is a broad creation, although he doesn’t quite fill the boisterousness of his charge. Gerle’s Aguecheek is silly, but he doesn’t quite hit the pathos of this used soul. Van Patten’s Feste is a great idea, and he’s a good comedic actor, but it feels more like Van Patten joking than Feste as a character choice. Would that he had been allowed to explore the lounge lizard persona a bit more. Helmbold is probably the strongest of the cast as the warped and wronged Malvolio. It’s hard not to put this diminutive actor into his two main costumes and not get a laugh just from his visual appeal, but he also does well as the butt of the knights’ joke. Hughes, a ringer for Suzanne Pleshette, is full of life as the conniving Maria.