Word: rackstraw
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...decks of Her Majesty's Ship Pinafore, ruled by the fair and just Captain Corcoran. Aboard, there is, save for that towards the reviled presence of Dick Deadeye, little animosity. There is tension to be sure, because Corcoran's daughter Josephine is in love with a seaman, Ralf Rackstraw, but she is betrothed instead to a much, much older man, Admiral of the Queen's Navy, Sir Joseph Porter. The Captain himself is in love with dear little Buttercup, but cannot marry her because she is a poorly Bumboat woman, of a lower class than he. So, these characters...
...Ralph Rackstraw (Joel Derfner) is a lowly sailor who falls in love with his captain's daughter, Josephine (Sarah Cullins). At the same time, the lowly peddler-woman Butter-cup (Jill Wietzner) hankers for the captain (Aaron Caughey). Neither of these longings, however, can be properly realized if we are to honor Gilbert's satirized British class distinctions, and it is this sitcom-like conflict which drives the play. Ralph professes his love for Josephine; she rejects the suitor her father has chosen and tries to elope with Ralph; Ralph is punished. Then, like a lightning-bolt from the Gods...
Joel Derfner as Ralph Rackstraw sings in an elegant, well-projected voice with effortless transitions to higher registers. Even his speech seems melodious, as if half-sung. With arms flailing wildly about him, he gives his part some wonderfully bombastic melodrama. Jill Weitzner shines as Little Buttercup. She communicates complex thoughts with her facial expressions, and has a crystalline, resonant voice to match. Weitzner's movements capitalize almost instinctively on her physique (in the play, she is given enough weight to take down a truck). We have no doubt that she is ideally suited to this type of physical humor...
...operetta tells the tale of two pairs of lovers, each divided by the chasm of class. Sailor Ralph Rackstraw and Josephine, the daughter of his ship's captain, are in love; the captain, however, has bigger plans for his daughter--he intends to marry her off to the Honorable Sir Joseph Porter, the leader of all the Queen's Navy...
...several of the main characters were excellent. Colum Amory was an earnest Ralph Rackstraw, and after some trouble warming up his voice, he was very good. Another of the show's highpoints was Shawna Cornelius in the role of the captain's daughter Josephine. Cornelius has a beautiful voice, and the small scenes which she was in with Amory and Sir Joseph (Orin Percus) saved the show...