The Sorcerer

The Sorcerer

W.S. Gilbert (Libretto) & Arthur Sullivan (Music)

Lamplighters Musical Theatre

“Ring forth ye bells with clarion sound,

Forget your knells, for joy abounds.

Forget your notes of mournful lay,

Sound forth your throats pure joy today.”

With full voices resounding in happy harmonies, a chorus of both the wealthy and the working class rejoice that the sadness of the Great War and the worldwide influenza epidemic is finally past them.  It is now time to celebrate a happy occasion — the betrothal of a beloved local couple, Alexis and Aline.  

Originally set in Victorian England, The Sorcerer finds its comic footing in 1920 for Lamplighter Musical Theatre’s latest offering in this its 72nd season of a W.S. Gilbert (libretto) and Arthur Sullivan (music) operetta.  With voices that soar as they trip with sprite alacrity through the alliterated, rhymed gymnastics that continue to make the nineteenth-century Gilbert and Sullivan universally popular, the Lamplighter cast presents a comedy full of upstairs/downstairs fun and frolics as well as an overlay of a magical love potion ready to pour out hilarious havoc.

On the cusp of the Roaring Twenties, the English villagers of Ploverleigh are ready for a party after years of tragedies.  But like many of their countrymen, they are also becoming attracted and susceptible to the occult as widows, grieving mothers, and others try to make contact with those lost just a few years prior.  As more and more businesses like J.W. Wells Company pop up offering themselves as “old established family sorcerers,” seances seeking the dead also make room for amulets, Aladdin’s lamps, prophetic tablets, penny curses, and “philters” — a potion ready to arouse instant love for the first person seen after a short, induced nap.  

Now imagine a hotel ready for a wedding celebration where cooks, bellboys, flower shop clerks, and maids are quickly bustling about to serve the gowned and top-hatted guests who have come to champagne toast the happy couple about to be wed.  Put a philter potion in afternoon tea, and we have a Gilbert and Sullivan musical farce in the making.  That is especially true when the production is directed with such devilish, delightful prowess by Pocket Opera’s General Director, Nicolas A. Garcia, who has imbued many tongue-in-cheek tricks and treats in his staging of this musically excellent, fun-filled Lamplighter’s production. 

At the heart of the story is the happy couple-to-be, Aline Sangazure and Alexis Pointdextre, both of wealthy and distinguished backgrounds — she being the 7037th direct descendent of Helen of Troy.  As Aline, Syona Ayyankeril sings with a soprano voice that springs lightly through the score’s required runs to land clearly and with ease in high-note perches.  For his part, Max Ary’s tenor vocals reign supreme time and again with clarion sureness, brilliant brightness, and trumpeting projection.  When in a duet, the two blend in sweetly intoned harmonies to match their locked-in-love eyes.

That is until Alexis proposes an outlandish suggestion to Aline that they employ John Wellington Wells to spread the love they feel throughout a village where others seems not able to take that final step to tie the knot.  After all, there is the love-deprived Vicar, Dr. Daly, (baritone Eric Mellum with compelling vocals capable of a comic edging) who is totally blind to the swooning adoration paid him by Constance Partlet, whose desires are sung with light vibrato and perky spirit by soprano Jayne Diliberto.  And they are only two of several village couples whom we briefly meet during the evening’s “Overture” that seem to find in pantomimed vignettes many excuses to uncouple rather then couple.

Much to Aline’s reluctant agreement, a wild and wily Wells arrives at Alexis’ bidding to offer his teapot full of love to all those gathered for the pre-wedding party — with a generous invitation by Alexis’ father, Sir Marmaduke Pointdexter, for all staff to join in the revelries.  Prior to their assembly, J.W. Wells conjures goblins and ghosts galore to enter the teapot and spike the liquid with their spirits — all wonderfully illustrated as part of the production’s fabulously colorful and comic projections designed by Anouar Brissel.  As Wells, Chris Uzelac sells the magician’s attracting charisma with a baritone that smacks of friendly cockney as well as a bountiful bounce as he easily conquers the challenges of the G&S lyrics that often fly by in rhyming absurdity (“organity,” “urbanity,” “satanity,” “humanity,” “inanity,” “vanity”).

Another blossoming love possibility is being seeded between the soon-to-be (and both widowed) in-laws, Sir Pointdextre and Lady Sangazure.  It seems thirty years before they were ‘almost-but-not-quite.’  Now, the blood is boiling again between the two as cutely sung and two-stepped danced by Josh Black and Cary Ann Rosko, playing the Sir and the Lady respectively.  But just as they are ready to join their children in matrimonial bliss, a sip of spirited tea sends them and the entire village (save the perpetrators Alexis, Aline, and Wells) into a nap followed by highly unlikely, highly uproarious matings now ready for matrimonies that cross society’s tried-and-true boundaries of economy and backgrounds.  And now, Gilbert, Sullivan, and Director Garcia really have some fun while all we can do is laugh aloud and enjoy the chaos.

Throughout, any time the ensemble as a whole takes the stage in song, the production particularly impresses and uplifts, given the music direction of Lynne Morrow who also conducts with full aplomb the notable orchestra of eleven.  Strong voices swirl in richly intertwined harmonies, whether in an all-women, an all-men, or a full-voiced song.  Ensemble members also bring individual nuance and personality to their non-speaking, non-solo parts and develop personas that can be gleefully followed throughout the story.

The heretofore, lauded projections of Anouar Brissel deserve special applause for a bike-riding sequence when Vicar Daly speeds through the countryside and village, stationary on stage but flowing through a backdrop of scenes smacking the merriment of a colorful, animated cartoon.  Kudos also goes both to Callie Floor for eye-popping, period-pleasing costumes that draw hilarious distinctions between the classes and to Susan Stone whose wigs, hair, and make-up designs are the icing on the cake for the evening’s visual merriment. 

At least for the final dress rehearsal that I was graciously invited to see and to review, the one part of the evening that fell a bit short of the high-bar set the rest of the production was the climatic demise of J.W. Wells — a necessary trip down, down, down to his fiery, final destiny in order for the potion’s powers to subside.  The execution in projection, smoke, and staging was a bit disappointing and non-convincing (but perhaps in the actual, three performances of this too-short run will be improved).

With only three chances to be entertained musically and comically, I encourage both fans and novices of Gilbert and Sullivan to grab a quick ticket and head to the Presidio Theatre this weekend (May 16-18) for a musically rich sojourn of sorcery and silliness as Lamplighters Musical Theatre presents The Sorcerer.

Rating: 4 E

The Sorcerer continues 7:30 p.m. May 16 , 2 p.m. May 17, and 2 p.m. May 17 in a two-hour, fifteen minute (including intermission) production at the Presidio Theatre Performing Art Center, 99 Moraga Avenue, San Francisco.  Tickets are available online at https://lamplighters.org/ or by calling City Box Office at 415-392-4400, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Photo Credits: Lucas Buxman