Maybe operating on the principle of something for everyone, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival provides enough variety in 2011 so that anyone who sees all 12 plays will come away excited by some and irritated by others. Not only by the smashes and flops that are part of any theatrical season, but by the choice of plays as well: four by Shakespeare, two musicals, another of the many Moliere productions over the years, a modern classic, a couple of new plays, and some star power thrown in for good measure. The four by Shakespeare range from one of his very best comedies, to two tragedies (including his goriest), to a comic romp that returns Sir John Falstaff to the stage for a memorable final appearance.

The most innovative casting this summer is for Shakespeare's historical tragedy, "Richard III." This one is especially worth seeing for the gifted actor who plays Richard: it's Seana McKenna, transforming the murderous hunchback into a "trouser role." Even more violent than Richard is "Titus Andronicus," a horrific tale of revenge unleashed. One of Shakespeare's earliest plays and long considered a minor work, it has begun to intrigue audiences over the last decade and a half - based partly on Julie Taymor's 1999 blood-soaked movie adaptation, "Titus."

Stratford has mounted so many productions of the popular comedy "Twelfth Night" over the last two decades that it's hard to justify another production - unless you run the box office. It sells tickets. Even though it's one of Shakespeare's most winning plays, I wonder how badly I need to see it every five years. Here we go again with the story of Viola, who, washed ashore in a foreign land after a shipwreck, dons male attire to serve - and fall in love with - lovesick Duke Orsino. What makes this new production worth seeing is the star power of Brian Dennehy as rambunctious, unruly Sir Toby Belch, matched in folly by Sir Andrew Aguecheek, played by the brilliant Stephen Ouimette. Ben Carlson takes on the always-intriguing task of defining the character of Feste, sometimes played as a working-class clown.

Although "Twelfth Night" with this cast could be memorable, Stratford is doing too much of this sort of thing: mounting a popular play, waiting a few years, and mounting it again with a new cast. I expect more productions of "Twelfth Night" than, say, the three parts of "Henry VI," but with the whole range of theater to choose from, they fill too many slots with plays they have recently revived.

So, aside from money, why in the world would Stratford do Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner's "Camelot" even though the last production was in 1997? In the aftermath of "My Fair Lady," when Loewe and Lerner tried to create a second great musical, they went as far afield as they could, to the court of King Arthur. But the wonder was missing. The result was a romance weighed down by a long, clunky book. The score has some marvelous songs, though, and director Gary Griffin has loaded the cast with such stalwarts as Brent Carver as Merlin and Geraint Wyn Davies as Arthur to try to keep things moving. Ticket sales aside, it remains to be seen if the production can overcome the show's turgidity.

For those seeking a musical that's more modern in style than "Camelot," the 1971 rock musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" already possesses a good-sized dose of the bombast for which Andrew Lloyd Webber either became a) famous or b) notorious. I'll go with b.

McKenna also brings back "Shakespeare's Will," which she first played in 2007. On the eve of Shakespeare's funeral, his widow, Anne Hathaway, thinks about their lives together and apart in this one-woman show by Vern Thiessen. After seeing the original production, I wrote that its dwelling on domestic matters would have little interest had the woman involved not been Shakespeare's wife.

For those interested in a play they haven't seen recently, the ones to consider include "The Homecoming," by 2005 Nobel Prize laureate Harold Pinter; Shakespeare's comic romp "The Merry Wives of Windsor," starring Wyn Davies again, along with Lucy Peacock and Tom McCamus; and John Mighton's "The Little Years," about a young woman in the 1950's with an interest in physics and a brother who earns a reputation as a writer.

I don't know "The Little Years," but it sounds interesting. I'm also eager to see the other two plays. The problems in Pinter's play begin with Teddy's return to London after living in America for six years. His arrival leads to a power struggle within the all-male household of father, uncle, and brothers. Meanwhile, the delectable chaos of "Merry Wives" derives in good measure from a Falstaff who is courting two wealthy women at the same time. When he sends the identical love letter to both of them, complications, as they say, ensue.

In many of these plays, familiar worlds turn upside down; at the very least, common assumptions come apart - in "The Homecoming" as well as in Moliere's "The Misanthrope" and Frank Galati's dramatic adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel, "The Grapes of Wrath." In "The Misanthrope," things go awry in a comic way when Alceste can't keep his mouth shut, while in "The Grapes of Wrath," the lives of ordinary people border on the tragic when the Great Depression shatters lives and one family, the Joads, fights to survive.

As I read through the casts of these dozen plays, the same names recurred in important roles - McKenna, Carlson, Wyn-Davies, Ouimette, McCamus, but also Brian Bedford, Peter Donaldson, Martha Henry, Sara Topham, Mike Shara, and many more. Who knows how the productions will turn out, but an ensemble company that can pull off so many different kinds of plays in a single season is what defines a place like Stratford at its best.

2011 Stratford Shakespeare Festival

Through October 30

Stratford, Ontario, Canada

Stratfordfestival.ca