Word: operettas
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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PERHAPS A STUNNING production could lift the darker elements of the operetta to an ironical statement against the smarmier preconceptions of musical comedy. After all, everyone in this play gets what he wants only through deceit or treachery, not least of all Fairfax, who uses his good looks and gentlemanly heroic manner to impress every man and enrapture any woman who crosses his path. In this world, marriages are contracted via the forces of blackmail, not true love, and the essential work of all involved--seeing to the imprisonment, torture and execution of prisoners of the crown--is never questioned...
...director Ronni Marshak, using a mixed bag of students, 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...
...successful elements of the 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...
Priates of Penzance: Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, Wellesley Alumnae Hall...
Wwas absorbed in the task of tracking down the disappeared, comforting the victims of torture who returned with their backs flayed and these eyes unfocused. Still, in the silence of the night, when the city lost its stage-set normally and its operetta peace, she was besieged by the agonizing thought she had repressed during the day. At that time of the night, the only traffi consisted of tracks filled with bodies and detainees, and police cars that roamed the streets like lost wolves howling in the darkness of the curfew...