Strict Gilbert and Sullivan purists, director David Auxier informed us facetiously, need not apply — for a ticket, that is, to this amusing and clever musical tribute to the famous Victorian songwriting team.  But rest assured that even those with minimal familiarity with their late nineteenth century musicals will relish I’ve Got a Little Twist at The Triad.

The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players have two aims: To “let [them] entertain you” with a Gilbert and Sullivan and contemporary song mix, and to demonstrate that the pair was in the forefront of what is now known as musical theater. “The Twins,” a poem by Victorian contemporary Henry S. Leigh and put to music by twentieth century composer Michael Head, plays as well, and as amusingly, today as ever.  But tellingly, the group interweaves songs from The Mikado, H. M. S. Pinafore, and The Pirates of Penzance with totally modern numbers.  “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid,” by Stephen Sondheim, could easily pass as progeny of G & S forebears.

A highlight of the show is demonstrating the continuity of what is known as a “patter song,” one sung so quickly that it is a wonder the singer can wrap his tongue around the lyrics.  A “patter trio” of numbers from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore is teamed with Sondheim’s “I’m Not Getting Married Today,” “Pick-A-Little” from The Music Man and Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill’s tongue-twisting catalogue of Russian composers, “Tchaikovsky.”  The lineage is undeniable.

The show’s title is a play on “I’ve Got a Little List” from The Mikado, and the ensemble achieves its ends with a variety of promised “twists.”   In a skit in which a woman visits a psychiatrist to discover her husband is still “just a little boy,” alto Angela Smith and soprano Michele McConnell perform a song from Patience with very few lyric changes, The “Nightmare Song” from Iolanthe is staged as a commuter’s subway nightmare.  The plaintive “Alone, and Yet Alive” from The Mikado works well paired with Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye.”

The purists, in spite of the opening admonition, are not left out in the cold.  Some G & S songs are sung straight, and appealingly, by the strikingly-talented Colm Fitzmaurice and David Wannen.  Stephen Quint, originally a French horn player in the pit orchestra, supplies the comedy often associated with G & S as he repeatedly, and ineffectively, tries to be taken seriously as a singer.  David Auxier, the show’s director as well as narrator and singer, supplies persuasive help in validating connections between G & S and contemporary musical theater.

I’ve Got a Little Twist is informative as well as fun.  And the musical history lesson never detracts from that fun.  One other aspect of the show is particularly appealing.  In the intimate confines of The Triad Theater, no amplification of the singers is used, or is necessary.  Mark York was arranger, music director, and piano accompanist.  It plays again at The Triad Theater on Sunday, January 18^th.

Barbara & Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
January 13, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org