Paragraphs got into all the papers

The new NEGASS Trumpet Bray is out (PDF), and it includes two reviews of the Brown Iolanthe. Here they are!

Mercury Major:

Great IOLANTHE at Brown University

The Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan Society (BUGS), in its second staged production, has already reached a level of performance excellence equal to MITG&SP or Harvard/Radcliffe.

True, they lack money, so instead of a set, there was a large movie screen. During the overture a witty PowerPoint presentation showed the cast and their characters, and during each act it showed a nice backdrop— supplemented at appropriate times with useful (and funny!) information and commentary.

The costumes were as traditional as funds allowed. Evidently those didn’t run to capes and coronets, so the Peers were clad—surprisingly effectively—in dark suits with lace cravats and a crest on the pocket (a different crest for each peer). The fairies wore an eclectic assortment ranging in time from Ancient Greek and Egyptian through Hippie to funky contemporary—but all with wings. Again, it worked. Both male & female choruses were outstanding, in both singing and acting!

The Fairy Queen, Claire Coiro, had the best costume, a beautifully tailored long black dress with wide bell-like upper sleeves and multicolored lower sleeves and underskirt. She was tall and queenly, and though her waist was slender her presence was massive. Her singing voice was untrained, and therefore much quieter than her speaking voice, which was splendid. When she learns to sing with support and resonance, she will be a treasure to any Savoyard group!

The only inadequate costume was Private Willis’s; his tunic was the wrong type and looked unfinished, and his shako was just a cloth tube—but the actor, Jordan Elkind, compensated for it with his proud bearing and tall, soldierly figure. He did earn my wrath by changing the final notes of his “accept this friendship all the same” cadenza to a contemporary pop-music ending, TOTALLY unsuited to the harmony following in “this sacrifice to thy dear name.”

The lack of classical training was evident in many of the voices, but all were pleasant and tuneful. Iolanthe, Leila Chakravarty, had some trouble with “He loves”…until the “withered flowers” climax, which soared into glory! Her “My doom” section was strong and good, too.

Michelle Menard, the Phyllis, had a gorgeous professional-quality voice, and did a terrific long angry cadenza just before “Oh shameless one, tremble”. She and Strephon were a delightful couple. He looked much like Sam Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings movies, in both costume and figure (though not hobbit-sized, of course). He was sometimes hoarse, but otherwise very good: his “chorused Nature” speech was especially excellent. The Lord Chancellor, Charles Shrader, was a very fine singer and actor too. The lead Fairies (Jessica Marquardt, Maggie Machaiek, and Lana Zaman) and Peers (Stephen Higa and Jackson Hoy Loper) were all energetic, engaging and funny.

The music direction by Sam Baltimore was sprightly, though instruments and singers sometimes got out of sync, and the stage direction by Jonathan Ichikawa was excellent, with effective blocking and many imaginative touches. During “In vain to us you plead,” the fairies magically stuck one shoe of each peer to the ground on the first “don’t go”—which bothered me at first, because then why keep repeating it? But at “We’ll go!” each peer escaped by slipping out of the stuck shoe and exiting oneshoed. The fairies then snatched up the abandoned shoes and clutched them lovingly. Sweet and funny!

Strephon had a pet sheep which was a recurring prop. He addressed his soliloquies to it, sobbed into its fur at “Oh mother, weep with me,” and used it to demonstrate to the lords how Iolanthe mothered him. At “your Strephon might have died,” he turned it legsup, and put the “dead” sheep/baby Strephon into the arms of the Lord Chancellor, who wept over it. Then Lord Mountararat (Hoy Loper), in his “But as she’s not” solo, took it from the Chancellor and tossed it over his shoulder back to Strephon. The combination of his supremely aristocratic contempt and the high arc of the flying sheep was indescribably funny.

Another clever touch was that the fairies all had filmy scarves that rendered them invisible when pulled across their faces. Strephon had the same type of scarf over his wings. When Phyllis in Act 2 said “there’s nothing to show it,” he pulled the scarf off, and she suddenly saw his wings and reacted to them, opening and closing them and seeming utterly charmed. Just as I was by this performance. Well done, BUGS!

Peter and Linda Silverstein:

Hurrah for BUGS – Brown University Gilbert & Sullivan- now celebrating its second season! It is wonderful that younger generations continue to “inherit” an appreciation for the works of G&S and it is gratifying to witness a college student performer declaring that “All we want to do is bring G&S to the people.”

We went to Providence to see the BUGS Fall production of IOLANTHE at the List Art Center on the Brown campus. Admission was free! It became apparent that the majority of the audience at this performance was composed of the families and friends of those involved in the show with a smattering of true G&S fans. It was also clear that BUGS, by its own admission, is an organization in need of additional funding and support -- as evidenced by its small-lecture-hall venue with a non-moveable podium, white-boards, the lack of a legitimate set, and the orchestra crammed into a corner. But what the group lacked in cash, space, and materiel it made up for in ingenuity. No scenery? Not a problem. Simply project a PowerPoint presentation with slides of Arcadia and Parliament. This ploy was actually quite clever and was also used to explain the plot and the characters to a largely non-Savoyard audience. Act II, for example, began with a very cute explanation of the differences between peers and fairies.

In short, BUGS shows great promise and should be headed for better stages. C’mon guys, you can charge for admission! BUGS will be producing PIRATES in the spring, and I encourage NEGASSers to head to Providence (where there are also lots of great restaurants) and check it out.