Word: princess
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...PRINCESS IDA was not well received when it opened in London in 1884, and it seems to have been discretely swept under the rug ever since by Gilbert and Sullivan devotees anxious to preserve the good names of the masters. But, judging from the current handsome production mounted by the Harvard G. and S. Players, their discretion has been misplaced...
...fact that Ida has the ability to charm a 20th-century audience is impressive, considering that its basic theme is, well, sexist. Princess Ida, married to Prince Hilarion at the tender age of one (he was twice her age, he tells us), has withdrawn from society to become the dean of a woman's University"--an institution Gilbert seems to find inherently ridiculous. Anything male is strictly forbidden--the female dons are awakened not by a rooster, but by "an accomplished hen," and one of them is expelled for bringing in a set of chessmen...
Undaunted, Prince Hilarion decides to make good his claim on Princess Ida's affections and, accompanied by his two friends Cyril and Florian, scales the walls of Castle Adamant--which serves as the university's campus. The three are, of course, openly scornful of the whole idea. Florian seems to speak for Gilbert when he says. "A woman's college! Maddest folly going! What can girls learn within its walls worth knowing?...I'll teach them twice as much in half an hour outside...
...doesn't pay to get worked up about the sexist slant of Princess Ida because, like any G. and S. operetta, it is, after all, a period piece. And that is exactly how the play is handled in this production--which, thank God, doesn't try to get funny with any embarrassing 20th-century gimmickry. There are plenty of slapstick embellishments, but--from the opening blast of "God Save the Queen" to the fake 19th-century programs, this production remains true to the spirits of Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan themselves...
...only weak point is, unfortunately, a glaring one. Tamara Mitchel as Princess Ida has a voice that is too overly operatic for the part, and her idea of expressing anguish, dismay, or annoyance is to look as though she has just tasted something ghastly. She succeeds in making a heroine who is, as written, something of a prig, absolutely insufferable...