Word: murgatroyds
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Ruddigore's plot is long-winded and strange. The main character, Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, the baronet of Ruddigore, is hiding in a small English village in order to escape a family curse. A misguided witch doomed each successive baronet to commit one crime a day or be killed. Ruthven left his brother, Despard, back at Ruddigore to assume the title of baronet and fall victim to the curse. Meanwhile, having adopted the clever pseudonym "Robin," Ruthven falls in love with the village sweet-heart, the prissy flake Rose Maybud. For the rest of the first act, Ruthven competes with...
Angered by Richard's betrayal. Robin finally speaks up and convinces Rose to marry him rather than a treacherous sea-dog like Richard. On the day of their wedding, however, the evil Sir Despard Murgatroyd (Brian Martin) appears and reveals that Robin is really Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, Despard's older brother and heir to the baronetcy of Ruddigore. The heir, says Despard, inherits the family fortune--as well as the family curse...
While mocking popular melodramas of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century England, Ruddygore is a melodrama in its own right. The plot revolves around a country gentleman Robin Oakapple (Phillip Resnick) who has run away from his position as the duke of Murgatroyd because in order to be duke, he must follow a long-standing family tradition and (of course) commit a crime a day. Oakapple falls in love with the beautiful village maiden Rose Maybud (Erika Fox Zabusky) who has a particular fetish with etiquette...
...inherited the family curse after the supposed death of his brother and who plans to carry Rose off as one of his crimes, and Mad Margaret (Katherine Sommers), who is desperately in love with Sir Despard, Professional bridesmaids--frustrated country maids--and country gentlemen who later double as Murgatroyd ghosts provide delightful choruses and cavort and dance all over the stage...
...hear. He has occasion to sing numerous solos, most of which get drowned out by the frequently overpowering orchestra. Resnick has an excellent stage presence and he delivers his dramatic lines well, strongly conveying his character's unwillingness to accept his role as the crime-committing Duke of Murgatroyd. Yet he speaks his songs, and we never get a chance to hear his real voice...