A Musical Mosaic of Gilbert & Sullivan

What do you do when your theatrical home has been closed for a period of around three years? Why you go out on tour to venues in other towns. Tonight, I have come to watch a performance at the Kings Lynn London Road Methodist Church. Churches are not necessarily designed for theatrical performances and here we had a raised dais complete with a full-length communion rail which was restrictive on space, however moving out on to the floor in front gave the opportunity for larger choreography.

The evening was well compered by Sam Lord who gave us throughout the performance, entertaining and informative snippets about the shows and about Gilbert and Sullivan themselves. Unfortunately, the sound was occasionally a bit erratic, but Sam carried on regardless.

The evening opened with excerpts from The Sorcerer with Judith Semmons giving a good account of herself as Mrs Partlett and Peter Eyre as Dr Daly. We then moved on to several songs from Iolanthe with the ladies’ chorus giving us, with Liz Kershaw and Emma Blackall a very entertaining ‘Tripping Hither’. This was followed by Julie Bjerregaard as the Fairy Queen, Cat Johnson as Iolanthe herself and Cay Pearsall as the shepherd boy Strephon. Steve Scales gave us a rather stately Lord Mountararat joined by all the cast. Cay Pearsall gave a good representation of a young man throughout the evening. We then moved onto Princess Ida, one of the G&S that I haven’t seen, here we had some different principals. Andy Hiles as King Gama and young Sophie Mycock as Melissa, she gave us some excellent performances throughout the evening. The ladies chorus giving us good vocals in ‘Merrily ring the Luncheon Bell’, a hint that it was interval time.

After the interval we marched into The Yeoman of the Guard starting with Emma Blackall as Phoebe sitting at her spinning wheel. We had smartly dressed Tower Warders led by Terry Kivlin together with good singing from the previously mentioned female soloists. We sailed effortlessly from the Tower of London on to HMS Pinafore where the male chorus gave a spirited rendition of ‘We Sail the Ocean Blue’ before we listened to Nikki Williams singing ‘I’m called Little Buttercup’. We then sailed effortlessly from Pinafore to Penzance with a bunch of pirates. A great rendition of some old favourites including Andy Hiles as the Pirate King with male chorus, ‘What ought we to Do’? with Sophie Mycock, Liz Kershaw and the ladies chorus, then of course with much hilarity the male chorus and Steve Scales singing ‘When a felon’s not engaged’ followed by a band of pirates brought to us by the ladies chorus with ‘A rollicking band’ followed by the whole company in ‘With Cat-like Tread’. The evening ended with entire company singing ‘Cachuka’ from The Gondoliers.

The company coped with the restrictions of performing in a church that has no stage, no space for set and scenery, there was a simply back panel created to fit the shape of the pulpit and a few props that were swiftly set up and removed by the stage crew. Lighting was simple but effective and showed off what costumes and accessories were used by the cast. There was some straightforward space restricted choreography that worked well. Rachel Mycock had worked well with the company to provide excellent vocals and harmonies and great work and applause to Kate Mould who provided piano accompaniment throughout the evening. Melanie had worked hard at directing a show performed in different venues with different restrictions and spaces, she had succeeded in producing an entertaining show for those who enjoy G & S under difficult circumstances

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