ENTERTAINMENT
By Tim Smith and Tim Smith,tim.smith@baltsun.com | July 16, 2009
There is something gloriously indestructible about the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. The music sounds fresh and charming, even in the most jaded or cynical of times. The plots manage to hold up, even when their seams show, and still generate sufficient interest and humor. The Pirates of Penzance is a particularly strong example, boasting a felicitous score that reveals the remarkable depth of Sullivan's lyrical craft and his ability to complement Gilbert's clever words imaginatively.
FEATURES
By Tim Smith and Tim Smith,Sun Music Critic | July 15, 2008
Light entertainment and a heavy heat/humidity quotient somehow go together perfectly. In one of Baltimore's more charming summer traditions, the Young Victorian Theatre Company makes that point each year with the help of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. The work chosen for the troupe's 38th season is as welcome for its relative novelty as for the general quality and flair of the presentation. The Gondoliers marked the final triumph of the extraordinary Gilbert and Sullivan franchise. Shortly after the premiere in 1889, an absurd, protracted quarrel over the expense of new carpeting at the duo's home base, London's Savoy Theatre, took a hefty toll on creative juices.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Tim Smith and Tim Smith,Sun music critic | July 10, 2008
One of the greatest partnerships in musical theater - wordsmith W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan - encountered periodic misunderstandings and conflicting goals. A particularly trying time for these two strong-willed creators of the world's most-popular operettas came in 1889, when Sullivan decided he needed a text that would be secondary to the music. Naturally, the librettist took severe umbrage at the idea. Testy letters were exchanged, egos severely bruised. The duo seemed on the verge of disunion when, thanks to diplomacy by producer Richard D'Oyly, who had made a fortune on G & S, a handshake saved the day. The result was the 12th Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration, and one of their biggest successes: The Gondoliers.
NEWS
By MARY JOHNSON and MARY JOHNSON,Special to The Sun | January 23, 2008
By putting a current spin on The Pirates of Penzance, Anne Arundel Community College Opera may well transform students and other young audience members into Gilbert and Sullivan devotees. This production, which opens Friday for a two-weekend run, is even more accessible than the operas presented in past seasons, though all gained relevance by changing location and period. The Bartered Bride was transported to Maryland's Eastern Shore and The Elixir of Love was set in a 1930s village in Tennessee.
NEWS
By Mary Johnson and Mary Johnson,Special to The Sun | November 30, 2007
Gilbert and Sullivan fans - and those not yet in their ranks - will find 2nd Star Productions' The Pirates of Penzance at Bowie Playhouse a highly entertaining show. Considered by many Gilbert and Sullivan devotees to be the best and funniest operetta ever penned by the British duo, Pirates is their only work to premiere in the United States, when in December 1879, Arthur Sullivan conducted the New York theater's orchestra. 2nd Star's current reincarnation succeeds on several levels - as a tuneful musical, a clever spoof and an old-fashioned romance that is well cast.
FEATURES
By Tim Smith and Tim Smith,sun music critic | July 10, 2007
For its annual production of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, the Young Victorian Theatre Company has not so much sprinkled Baltimore-isms on H.M.S. Pinafore as drowned the old vessel in them. That's not to say the result is all wet, but merely to point out that anyone who prefers G&S reasonably undiluted may have some trouble swallowing this concoction. Saturday night's opening performance at the Bryn Mawr School generated enough musical values and high spirits, though, to keep the ever-fresh spark of Sullivan's brilliant score burning nicely.