Word: strephon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Gareth Jones brings a pleasant tenor to the straight role of the half-mortal Strephon, and Kenneth Sandford, who has been with the troupe for more than two decades, is a sturdy Private Willis (he will be giving something close to his 2100th performance as Pooh-Bah in The Mikado here...
...FIRST SIGHT, though, Iolanthe doesn't appear to be the high point of Gilbert and Sullivan's career. The first of the two plots concerns Fairyland, a stern Fairy Queen and a half-Fairy named Strephon, who is a Fairy from his head to his waist but whose legs are mortal. As in most G&S operas, there is a foolishly severe law that needs to be broken before happiness can be achieved--in The Mikado it is the prohibition of flirting, in H.M.S. Pinafore it is the prohibition of swearing, in Ruddigore it is the commission of one evil...
...words. Iolanthe (Nancy Wilson) also has a lovely voice, though her acting is wooden and uncertain. The chiefs of the Fairy chorus (Patty Low, Patty Woo and Rozlyn Anderson) are all fine. One of the few flaws in the characterizations is Doug Morgan's portrayal of half-mortal Strephon. One always sympathizes with actors condemned to boring straight roles while others are allowed to bring down the house. But Morgan can't be forgiven so easily--he approaches his role with a set of two or three facial contortions and speaks his lines in a grating whine...
...Fairies, and Lisa Landis as Phyllis, the other as the tender young maid-a commonplace G and S device, but a good one. Oliver Twom are both very good, one as an elderly Victoria type, bly and Karl Deirup are fine as Lords, but William Pomeroy's Strephon is weak-a bit too stiff, and not very authentic. The peers are magnificent in such numbers as "Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes...". although their makeup is completely ineffective; they look like a chorus of nineteen-year-olds playing British peers...