Is it not about time Gilbert and Sullivan made a reappearance on the Great White Way? Or the West End for that matter? I know it would be a risky business, but i think that with some careful updating they could be hits, like the Kevin Kline Pirates was. I'm playing Nanki-Poo in a regional production of the Mikado, and it is just the most fantastic show. I was recently in a successful production of Iolanthe, and i think that it could be a smash in the West End, with its witty jibes at British aristocracy and governments.
Love them! When my bro was in sixth grade they did "Pirates of Penzance". Kind of a weird choice, but it DID introduce me to the show. LOVED Modern Major General and the List song from the Mikado.
Rosencrantz: "Be happy - if you're not even HAPPY what's so good about surviving? We'll be all right. I suppose we just go on."
- from Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
I was in Pirates last year. It was a fun show, but I don't know...
Why do we play with fire?
Why do we run our fingers through the flame?
Why do we leave our hands on the stove, although we know we're in for some pain?
-tick...tick...BOOM!
How about Ruddigore... I live for the Patter Song. It's actually the tune used in the Typing Test in Millie. "My eyes are fully opened to my awful situation..." That or The Mikado would be divine. "Three little maids from school are we..."
The partnership of W. S. Gilbert (book and lyrics) and Arthur Sullivan (music) then would be equivalent to the teaming of say Mel Brooks (book and lyrics) and Andrew Lloyd-Weber (music) today.
G&S are the fathers of the musical and are still imitated, or borrowed from, by contemporary musical creators, even by those considered to be today's geniuses.
THE MIKADO PATIENCE THE GONDOLIERS IOLANTHE PIRATES PINAFORE TRIAL BY JURY
"If you want to know who we are, We are gentlemen of Japan; On many a vase and jar-- On many a screen and fan, We figure in lively paint: Our attitude's queer and quaint-- You're wrong if you thing it ain't, oh!"
G&S are well worth worth exploring and provide hours of musical theatre pleasure.
PATIENCE is sharp, witty, clever, satiric and also just plain fun. It also provided a brief moment in Stoppard's INVENTION OF LOVE.
I had the good fortune to see MIKADO performed by D'Oyly Carte Company in London at the Savor Theatre in 2001. It was marvelous, melodious and memorable.
NY's Gilbert & Sullivan Players do a very good job with their productions as well.
Oy. Pirates of Penzance. I was in a high school production of that 3 years ago...and for such difficult material, I must say we pulled it off remarkably well.
At the summer stock program I did this summer, we did two Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, Iolanthe and Yeomen of the Guard. Yeomen was pretty blah (I had fun because I had a lead, but if I hadn't had that role, I would have agreed it was blah), but Iolanthe was actually a huge favorite among the whole company and audience. I often thought how fun it would be to see it done on the Broadway stage. And I think that many people would go see it too. It attracts older theater lovers and I think it could open the eyes of the younger lovers!