Word: gilbert
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...surprisingly, the audience didn't seem anywhere nearly as bored as the cast with the whole thing. The story of "The Lass that Loved the Sailor" below her station--propelled by Gilbert's jabs at pomp and middle-class mediocrity--still fills an evening. But it was the deliberate self-conscious irony that made something out of Pinafore's obviously inane plot--the hundreds of little jokes in the script that combine to take all the starch out of the Victorian stuffed shirt...
GREG DELAWIE'S direction at the Loeb completely misses its chance to underscore the irony, leaving poor Gilbert's words to stand or fall on their wit alone. That they could stand at all is a tribute to the universality of his satire. No one remembers W.H. Smith any more (the newspaper-stand magnate Gilbert caricatures as Sir Joseph Porter)--except the tourists to Great Britain who still see his name on every other newsstand. But no one can miss this general broadside against sinecures of any kind...
Once you give up looking for any idea behind a Gilbert and Sullivan performance, you can only hope that there will be individual singers good enough to hold the show together. The Loeb cast is near-perfect--the overall quality of singing is strikingly high--even better, the cast and chorus remain completely intelligible throughout the evening. This is the best insurance possible for a G & S show; as long as Gilbert's words come through, laughs will follow...
...Gilbert's Sir Joseph Porter is his great creation in Pinafore, the character everyone remembers. But the pompous First Lord of the Admiralty, tailed by his drone horde of matronly relatives, fussily insisting that officers and crew "refrain from language strong," should be a solid character nonetheless. He's the vehicle for Gilbert's satiric venom, and he should be just respectable enough for us to enjoy laughing at him. Jonathan A. Prince turns Porter into a lovable old Codger, who you'd help across the street or stage if you could stop cracking up for a moment. So much...
Whether it was the director who couldn't motivate his cast, or the cast who were just a little bored by this warhouse, the Gilbert and Sullivan Players took Pinafore for granted; they didn't put in the energy it needs. Theirs is still an over-whelmingly competent production, with superb singing--one worth seeing of you lovePinafore, love Gilbert and Sullivan, or just love watching all those funny, cute Englishmen acting so very English. But then, the Loeb is sold out already. Ironically, enough people love Pinafore as a harmless trifle that it can be de-fanged with impunity...