Gilbert's Magical Christmas

What a lovely winters evening I spent with the talented cast od Hull Savoyards. A truly brilliant
collaboration of some beloved Gilbert and Sullivan songs dispersed with some festive Christmas Carols.
John Lamb who not only wrote, directed and starred as W S Gilbert did a fabulous job of compiling the
list of songs whilst entwining it with a wonderful story of family and sorcery which takes you directly into
the wacky minds of Gilbert and his characters.
The story takes place in the family home of W S Gilbert and his wife Lucy, portrayed by Laurine Kay,
whilst they host a Christmas get together for their family. As Gilbert knew his wife well and suspected her
of planning a party, he hatched a plan of his own and asked the devious sorcerer J W Wells, portrayed
by Steve Aylmer, to come and add a touch of magic to the festivities. As the magic starts to take affect
different character from some of Gilbert and Sullivans most famous works come to life.
One of the standout elements of this performance was the singing, it was truly sublime with such
beautiful harmonies and solo performances you could not help but smile. It was clear to see that a great
amount of work has gone into preparing the lovely performance. Although the set was simple it was very
well designed and made to accompany the story of the show. The costumes were beautiful and matched
the character to perfection and really made everyone look the part whilst bringing the whole cast together
in a cohesive way. The accompaniment of Keyboards provided by Martin Lay and Stanislava Svarogina
were well executed and was lovely for a venue of that size.
As I mentioned previously the singing performances were wonderful. All numbers whether chorus or
solos were sung with great mastery and characterisation of the many parts people played .A lovely
rendition of My Name is John Wellington Wells was fabulous, sung by Steve Aylmer, who brought a
larger than life persona to his character. Equally the duet, Oh, I have Wrought Much Evil with My Spells,
he sang with Val Marshall portraying Lady Sangazure was truly comedic and a joy to watch.
Another moment in the show which was truly entertaining was a section of the first Act where Lucy
Gilbert described how demining Gilbert was about some of his, shall we say more mature ladies. The
song Parody of Twenty Love-sick Maidens We was sensational and saw many of the ladies in the cast
dressed as various characters from a variety of shows and was just wonderful including Wendy Buxton,
Sue Sutton, Louise Jaques, Elizabeth Franklin, Val Marshall and Ann Richardson.
As those of you who have previously read my reviews will know I like to pick out certain cast members
who I feel have done an exceptional job on stage. I am very lucky in this circumstance that I can’t pick
out just one individual but instead have found two. All performance provided by Stuart Sellens and Zoe
Sellens were fantastic. As part of the audience your eye could not help but be drawn to the pair of them.
Both singing and acting performances were equally entertaining and I would like to give a big round of
applause to you both.
I must applaud Hull Savoyard for their resilience in performing at four venues over the run of the show
which I think all will agree is no mean feet requiring the cast to be adaptable to each space they were
provided. Although the last show was not as well attended as previous ones it was still clear to see that
audiences enjoyed the experience. Part of the added joy for me was seeing a young girl in the audience
dancing away and beaming throughout the show. I don’t know what higher praise can be given than that

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