Word: rackstraw
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...Operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan are delightfully humorous in themselves, and can get along quite well without scene stealing, mugging, and clowning on the part of any of the leads. Unfortunately, John Hutchinson was guilty of being unable to find the light touch in playing the part of Ralph Rackstraw...
Darrell Fancourt was a properly grotesque, and villainous Dick Deadeye, but that was to be expected. Most surprising was the performance of Thomas Round as Ralph Rackstraw. In less able hands, this role can become just another callow juvenile, latched onto the plot to take care of the male side of the love interest, and for little other purpose. But Round didn't devote himself to a simple display of his fine voice--he added a mature and well-constructed characterization that made his part more than just that of First Tenor...
...quondam Captain of the Pinafore, let many an opportunity of building the Captain into a sympathetic and believable character slip by, although his singing, too, was superb. The one more unfortunate bit of casting was that of Helen Roberts as Josephine, daughter to the Captain, beloved of Ralph Rackstraw, but promised to Sir Joseph Porter. Miss Roberts possesses a fine set of high notes, but she all to frequently let her coloratura get away from her and succeeded in casting her words into some oblivion above the proscenium...
...June 4), which throws a monkey wrench into the music of H.M.S. Pinafore, conies Hollywood Pinafore, which runs a saw through the libretto. Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., is now a timid tyrant of a producer (Victor Moore); Dick Deadeye is Dick Live-Eye (William Gaxton), a rapacious agent. Ralph Rackstraw (Gilbert Russell) is a lowlier writer than he was a tar; and Little Buttercup is Little ButterUp, a gurgling columnist named Louhedda Hopsons (Shirley Booth...
...usher in "Trial by Jury" and as Dick Dead-Eye, although the latter part required a bass which he was not able to supply. James Gerard, the romantic lead of the company and its only good tenor, does not quite look the part of the handsome Ralph Rackstraw or a Nanki-Poo. His substitute, Allen Stewart, who played the defendant in "Trial by Jury," is better looking but his voice does not have the required lyrical quality...