Word: utopias
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...poor choice of opera, lackadaisical musical and dramatic staging, and inconsistent performing spoil the fun for everyone. Even G&S aficionados who ordinarily revel in riproarious productions of favorites like The Mikado and the H.M.S. Pinafore--will have a hard time sitting through this long and uninspired production of Utopia Limited or Flowers of Progress. We watch the operetta wilt before our eyes...
...root of the problem lies with the operetta itself. The Harvard group would have been wise to follow the example of other G&S troupes, which seldom if ever mount this little-known work by the famous duo. As a matter of fact, the story of the colonization of Utopia and its incorporation into Utopia Limited borders on the inane and tedious. Not only do the lyrics and score lack the crisp wit and euphonic melodies that characterize most G&S operettas, but also most of the satire falls flat in front of an American audience. It isn't until...
During the course of the evening, we watch the despotic but disorganized King Paramount learn the English version of monarchy. Traipsing around on stage with him are the highly malleable citizens of Utopia, two sycophantic advisors, six stereotypic Englishmen, and three slightly dizzy princesses, the eldest of whom has just returned from finishing school in England. Most of the characters overflow with superfluous emotions that only serve to complicate the already too-intricate plot...
...when a G&S company does decide to produce Utopia it should do a little cutting beforehand: two-and-a-half hours of this circuitous fluff could put even the most hyperactive of audience members to sleep. Not only is the production hampered by its length, but also most of the staging proves too distracting for the weak company to support. Noticeably lacking are introductory overtures before either of the acts. Ordinarily such music helps the audience enter into a nineteenth-century frame of mind. Instead, after a brief warm-up, the opera begins with a riotous choral entrance...
...smoothly. With the men busy knocking down walls and building new ones. Nowak exercises a firm yet detached control over them. An amusingly ironic scene comes early on, when the men pay their first visit to the rather seedy local supermarket. Their eyes light up responding to the seeming utopia and their hands push the empty shopping carts with clumsy eagerness. The suspicious glances of the shoppers and salespeople, the sudden arrest of a shoplifter the clicking video cameras at every aisle--all combine into a grosteque echo of a totalitarian state...