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| Rebecca Stuhlbarg, Sheryl Wood, Jan Rosenthal, Samantha Hughes, and Sarah Ominski |
By Tina Arth
If you’re going to ask an audience to sit for 2 ½ hours in
an older theater without air conditioning on a genuine Hot August Night, it’s a
good idea to offer free bottled water, ice cream sundaes at the end, and top-flight
entertainment. Light Opera of Portland (LOoP): Water? Check. Ice cream?
Definite double check. Top-flight entertainment? Amazing triple check – this
production of Iolanthe is a must-see
for local audiences with a passion for Gilbert and Sullivan’s wryly absurd
musicals.
Artistic Director Dennis Britten and Musical Director Linda
Smith have teamed up to once again mold a talented cast into a whole that is
much greater than the sum of its parts. The cast is loaded with strong
vocalists, some new and many of them veterans of previous LOoP
productions. The ensemble work is
powerful, intricate, and often quite beautiful – but most important, it’s just
plain fun. A show selling its underlying themes (satirizing the absurdity of
both political and sexual norms, in some ways as appropriate today as when
written) through an utterly nonsensical premise can easily turn into slapstick
unless the cast and production team take an unwaveringly serious and
professional approach – and LOoP cannot be faulted on this count.
Utterly nonsensical? Try this: Iolanthe is a fairy, banished
from fairyland for marrying a mortal. Some 25 years later, the Queen of the
Fairies relents, and allows Iolanthe to return from exile. Everyone is shocked
to learn that Iolanthe was pregnant when banished, and now has a 24 year-old
son – a half-human, half-fairy Arcadian shepherd named Strephon. Strephon is
engaged to the fair Phyllis, an Arcadian shepherdess who is also, remarkably, a
ward of the British chancery (the geographic gap between Greece and Great
Britain being conveniently overlooked). Phyllis is not yet of age, and needs
the permission of The Lord Chancellor to marry – but all of the members of the
House of Peers are infatuated with Phyllis (including the Lord Chancellor). Phyllis, who does not know about Strephon’s
hybrid genealogy, believes her beau has cheated on her when she sees him
embracing a young, beautiful woman (his mother Iolanthe, who looks 17 because
she is a fairy and does not age quite like the rest of us). All this, and we’re
barely half way through Act I!
The story ostensibly revolves around Phyllis and Strephon,
ably portrayed by Lindsey Lefler and Laurence Cox. Lefler shifts from wide-eyed
innocent to determined lover, seasoned with bouts of petulance – all expressed
through flashing eyes, a melting smile, and her pitch-perfect soprano delivery.
Cox brings a solid voice to the role, while capturing the contradictions
inherent in his fairy/human background – a slightly androgynous affect
consistent with being fairy on the top half, human on the bottom, and
“extremely pretty, but inclined to be stout.” However, many of the show’s most
charming touches come from other characters – on team fairy, particularly Sarah
Ominski’s politically astute and mischievous “Leila,” Jan Rosenthal’s bumbling
“Fleta” (watch for her shoes!), and Sheryl Wood’s mercurial “Queen of the
Fairies.” Gilbert and Sullivan wrote the peers as stuffed shirts utterly bereft
of any redeeming social value, but the tradeoff is that they get most of the
really funny lines – Rob Patrick (“The Lord Chancellor”), Mark Flannery (“Earl
of Mountararat”) and Dennis Kelly (“Earl of Tolloller”) are hilarious in a
couple of debates about their relative suitability as Phyllis’ mates.
Additionally, Kelly’s surprisingly powerful voice firmly anchors the male vocal
ensemble.
The show is done with just two sets – a pleasant woodland
scene for Act I, the London skyline for Act II – so no time is lost to scene
changes. Woody Woodbury’s guardhouse is particularly detailed, and subtly
(perhaps inadvertently) captures a timelessness consistent with the show’s
comic surrealism. Costume designer Sandra King has done well by both fairies
and peers, although perhaps the male ensemble would appreciate fewer layers of
tuxedo and ermine on hot nights! Finally, pianist Linda Smith’s musical
direction is flawless. With just piano, flute, occasional trumpet, and vocals she more than satisfies the complex demands of light opera.
The Alpenrose Dairy Opera House has fine acoustics and ample
space to accommodate the audiences that this show deserves. With only a
two-week run, don’t delay – this offering may not appear on a Portland stage again
for a long, long time!
LOoP presents Iolanthe
through Sunday, August 28th with performances at 7:30 on Friday and
Saturday and 3:30 on Sunday at Alpenrose Dairy Opera House, 6149 SW Shattuck
Road, Portland.
