Word: comics
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...perhaps not so usual. There's something decidedly peculiar about a comic opera in which no one's final happiness is convincing. Of the three marriages in the show, two spring from coercion, and the third--the wedding of Fairfax and Elsie--originates as a strategem to defraud an undeserving kinsman, proceeds only through bribery of the bride and, most importantly, culminates in the rejection and desolation of two abundantly worthy suitors...
...minor characters are not quite as pivotal or as interesting as in some other Gilbert and Sullivan operettas--there's nothing here to compare, for example, with the posturings of the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe or Katisha's ravings in The Mikado--but they still offer marvelous opportunities for comic mugging. Scott Meadow turns in a sharply defined performance as Wilfred Shadbolt, the "assistant tormentor" who eventually wins Phoebe's hand (but not her heart). A typical Gilbert and Sullivan "light heavy," Meadow's Wilfred is too ridiculously self-important and gullible to be really threatening. Carol Flynn also...
...begin with, and Ellen Burkhardt offers little more than freshness and smiles to fill it out; but her voice is so stirring and powerful that it overwhelms any deficiencies in her acting. By contrast, Linda Anne Kirwan is a gifted comedienne, handling the part of Pheobe with real comic flair and singing well, if less vigorously than her rival. Roberto Gaston makes an extraordinarily winning Fairfax, with his broad toothy grin, strong tenor and charming Gilbertian sense of the absurd...
This singing, dancing and comic posturing all takes place against the background of Joe Mobilia's solid-seeming set, which recreates the look of the infamous Tower on one side of the stage, and of a 16-century English village on the other. Linda Beyer's costumes demarcate character with style and color; especially stunning is the apparel she designed for bride and bridegroom--matching outfits of forest green velvet and light green silk, evoking images of verdant woods and fertility...
Yeomen of the Guard. The Gilbert and Sullivan Players do it again, with another great comic opera. See Julia Klein's review (in this issue). April 28-May 1 at the Agassiz Theater. Tickets $2.75. Get them in advance at Holyoke Center...