No 37 -- Summer 1991 Edited by Michael Walters
This proved to be almost a triumph. I say almost, because of its uneven–ness, but then the play is a curious and uneven piece. It began life at the Bristol Old Vic, where Ian Taylor, a staff writer, was asked to write it as a filler for a run intended to be about 2–3 weeks. It was such a tremendous success that it was brought to London for a season. I had gone to see it at Bristol, having been assured by Peter Allanson, who then lived there, that it was playing to empty houses, and found there was no chance of getting in. I had to wait for London. There have been several plays over the years, musical and non–musical, depicting the story of Gilbert and Sullivan, but this is the only one which has had any lasting success. I met Ian Taylor once when he came to talk to the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and found him a very diffident and modest man, barely able to understand his sudden success. (He is, incidentally, not the same man as the Ian Taylor who wrote the Gilbert and Sullivan Quiz Book).
The play is quite skilfully put together, and basically as accurate as a revue–type show is likely to be. The scenes involving the three main characters carry most of the interest, interspersed with basically irrelevant extracts from the operas. It stands or falls by the performances of its three main characters, and on this occasion they were excellently played. Unfortunately the acting and singing of the chorus and minor characters left quite a lot to be desired. As usual the Questors' thrust stage was employed, and represented Carte's office, while two desks respresented the studies of Gilbert and Sullivan. For Act 2, these two men were provided with their own studies mounted on little rostra on either side of the main stage, which was used for the musical extracts. The small orchestra (piano, two synthesizers, double bass and percussion) were at the very back against a screen on which were projected, at appropriate moments, slides of original posters, programmes, etc., relating to the operas.
Outstanding was Steve Taylor as Gilbert, convincingly portraying the anger and irritability of the man, as well as the humanity and the vulnerability. His rendering of the Nightmare Song was the best item of the evening. Gareth Bevan had made himself up to look remarkably like Sullivan (spoiled only by his long hair) and was convincingly sympathetic. D'Oyly Carte (John Chamberlain) did not really look like the real character; he was a large chubby bear of a man! These three convincingly made the point that the partners really got on together pretty well most of the time (well, they must have done, their partnership lasted for over 20 years) – the "quarrels" were a temporary aberration. The scenes between the three men were rivetting, of an acting quality that one does not expect in an operatic society, and which was worthy of a good dramatic society. The trouble was that the quality of these scenes showed up the rest, and many of the musical extracts (with truncated bits of songs strung together like a "vocal gems" record popular in the days of the 78) seemed merely intrusions.
To anyone who knew the operas, it was confusing that the characters were not strictly adhered to; thus Grossmith, who appears as a character with dialogue, sang in the extracts of some of the operas in which he appeared, but not others; while another singer appeared as Barrington in one opera and as Temple in another. Not that this was terribly important, but it niggled that so much trouble should have been gone to, to identify every single actor/singer in every single scene, and then to get it wrong. With massive doublings and treblings, the entire cast list occupied nearly three large pages of the 8–page programme. It should be pointed out that the original Usher was B.R. Pepper, not M. Pepper as here stated, and there was no such person as Durwood Lely.
I felt that Wesley Henderson's style was rather hampered by the role of Joe the fictional stagehand and narrator, which he played as a Londoner and probably gave it more than the role deserved. The way in which the narration is written, partly delivered by Joe and partly by some of the minor characters, is, I feel, one of the play's weaknesses. Better to have had an impersonal narrator. Nick Poole, whom I had hated so much as Don Alhambra in the last YS production, was most unlike Grossmith (with a smarmy grin), but comparatively unobjectionable. Colin Smith (Burnand, music critic, Corcoran, Pirate King, Calverley, Nanki–Poo and Antonio!) seemed incredibly nervous and tense. He sang extremely well, but it seemed to require a great effort on his part.
MICHAEL WALTERS
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