Word: gilberte
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Book and Lyrics by W.S. Gilbert...
...HEADSMAN'S BLOCK is hardly the ideal centerpiece for a comic opera, but The Yeomen of the Guard is hardly the ideal comic opera. Rife with unlikable characters and uninventive contrivances, this odd Gilbert and Sullivan number is rightfully among the rarely revived. The Harvard Gilbert & Sullivan Players have an obligation to give due attention to each of Sir William and Sir Arthur's works, however, and their spring production is an able and ultimately entertaining attempt at presenting the eleventh of the duo's 14 operettas...
...alumni and professional actors, has provided only a competent illustration of the operetta, animating the characters and plot, but failing to provide the imagination necessary to save the unhappy Yeomen. Choreography is drab and activity limp. When the show succeeds, it is through the rarely faltering cleverness of Bill Gilbert and Art Sullivan, who have never failed to provide enticing verbal and musical strands...
Clearly rising above the general adequacy is Miller, whose combination of verbal and athletic dexterity makes Jack Point at once the most convincing and most entertaining figure in the show. Whether leaping and somersaulting across the stage or acting the mock-Shakespearean trickster Gilbert envisioned Point to be, Miller possesses the vibrancy necessary to ignite the show...
...spring Yeomen mask its shortcomings. Musicals, no matter how dumb, always entertain if performed with a modicum of professionalism. This strange operetta claims only to be "an experiment in merriment," and though it doesn't quite illuminate all the author and composer might have hoped it would, the Gilbert & Sullivan Players have fulfilled their obligation to their namesakes with enjoyable artistry. Thanks to that effort, The Yeomen of the Guard won't have to be performed again, until all the present matriculants of the College are long gone away...