Operettas G and S, With a Twist Iolanthe, at Agassiz this weekend and next

IOLANTHE has always contested with The Gondoliers for the bottom of my affections among all Gilbert and Sullivan. Like a wind in the willows on a soft spring day. Iolanthe passes by, leaving no lasting impressions, only a vaguely pleasant feeling. The occasional moments of high comedy are usually compensated for by a weak book and a pretentious, generally overdone score.

The current production of Iolanthe at Agassiz has managed to avoid all the pitfalls which usually detract from the play, and has created a marvelously worthwhile evening of theatre. The stage direction and the choreography have taken much of the usual pretentiousness out of the production, and the actors in general are good enough to carry the show through the weak spots.

Iolanthe is perhaps the main reason why William Gilbert did not receive his knighthood until shortly before he died. The show attacks the House of Lords, the law, the bourgeoisie, and Wagner (all of which deserve attacking). The peers are savagely caricatured, given Wagnerian leitmotivs and placed in absurd situations. The humor of the book is alternately subtle and broad, but, when done well, always amusing.

The Harvard G and S Iolanthe is almost uniformly excellent, allowing for the perennially weak violins. Someday these people will learn that G and S, all G and S, requires a large violin section, and one which is in tune-but I'm not holding my breath. Noreen Tuross's choreography milked the ensembles for every laugh they contained, and Kenneth Kanter's stage direction was thoroughly inspired. Kanter has managed to maneuver the entire company of Iolanthe -dozens of lords and fairies, mortals and others-around the ludicrously small Agassiz stage without making the entire company look awkward. His actors are thoroughly rehearsed and, with few exceptions, completely in character.

As the Lord Chancellor, Jack Marshall is utterly brilliant, a black-robed Harlequin who handles both his serious singing and his patter song quite well, doing a fine interpretation of "When you're lying awake..." as a much more sinister song than most singers make it. Nancy Urquhart as the Queen of the Fairies, and Lisa Landis as Phyllis, the other as the tender young maid-a commonplace G and S device, but a good one. Oliver Twom are both very good, one as an elderly Victoria type, bly and Karl Deirup are fine as Lords, but William Pomeroy's Strephon is weak-a bit too stiff, and not very authentic. The peers are magnificent in such numbers as "Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes...". although their makeup is completely ineffective; they look like a chorus of nineteen-year-olds playing British peers.

This production of Iolanthe has done much to change my opinion of the show; this version, with the flaws worked out, is certainly the kind of thing Gilbert and Sullivan had in mind when they wrote the show.