The Sorceror

[fauxklore]

Since I was already most of the way there, it made sense to continue south from the Fall Fiber Festival to Charlottesville and see the New Lyric Theatre production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Sorceror." It is an inherently flawed operetta, but even flawed Gilbert and Sullivan is fun. Tuneful music makes it possible to ignore the sheer silliness of the plot and the fact that the first act is nearly twice as long as the second. It's also rather troubling that there's never really any explanation of why Dr. Daly relents in his attitude towards Constance. But one does need that nice "rousing finale full of words and music signifying nothing" (to quote Tom Lehrer) and I suppose it would be unfair to leave somebody out.

I thought the performances quite good for the most part. Dan Stern did an especially nice job as Dr. Daly. My only real quibble was with the costumes. I know John Wellington Wells is supposed to be a bit ridiculous, but I thought his costume was a bit overdone, as were those of the spirits.

A good job overall and I am always happy to support companies putting on productions of operettas besides the big three.

Comments

[shmuel.livejournal.com]

I saw it a couple of years ago at MIT, not having had any familiarity with it beforehand... I pretty much agree with all the above. In the production I saw, the sorcerer was a sympathetic character, and I couldn't see how his being sent to his doom through no fault of his own was supposed to be a happy ending. But, hey, lots of words and music! :-)