Word: theater
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...take the proceedings too seriously. If you're out for a night of stark realism or harrowing psychological drama, engagements in town will better suit your palate. Such qualities are mercifully absent in the entire cycle of works that have come from two eminent gentlemen of British theater. Not an exception is this year's Gilbert and Sullivan Players' production of HMS Pinafore, which, in fierce (yet of course gentlemanly) competition with The Pirates of Penzance, is among the most beloved of the repertoire. And, although the duo hated each other towards the end of their career, they created...
...THEATER...
...Aggasiz Theater...
...song is passed from the stage to the conductor, we easily suspend disbelief. Such small touches also draw attention from the show's more uneven edges--which are few and far between. For instance, the stage is just a little too cluttered. In terms of width, the Agassiz Theater is a small space to begin with, but coupled with the fact that almost half of the performing space is reduced with the ship's quarter deck, the outcome is a cluttered stage. In crossing the ship, the sailors must take great pains to avoid the females' hoopskirts (their costumes...
...decision to stress Pinafore's music is certainly sensible, and could hardly be construed negatively were it not for the fact that the Agassiz Theater is a great big sucking black hole for sound. The harmonies (always in fourths or fifths) are sweet and solid when it comes to larger chorus numbers, but in the counterpoint lines where soloists sing against the current of larger groups, individual lines get lost in the shuffle of choral lines. Of little help was the orchestra which, while exceptionally strong throughout, could have restrained themselves a little just to give their struggling vocalists...