Oh, rapture unrestrained! The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players have announced their 2025-2026 season, which includes both perennial favorites and hidden gems by librettist William S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan. This season marks the first under the leadership of incoming Artistic Director James Mills. Mills takes over the post from company founder Albert Bergeret, who will step into an Emeritus role.
The season will begin in October with The Yeomen of the Guard. Though Gilbert and Sullivan are best known for their comedy, The Yeomen of the Guard marked a turn toward more serious subjects. Set in and around the Tower of London in Tudor times, the story centers around Colonel Fairfax, condemned to death for sorcery after being framed by his cousin. While the Colonel's comrade-in-arms Sergeant Meryll plots with his children Phoebe and Leonard to rescue Fairfax, Fairfax himself enacts a scheme to thwart his cousin's inheritance. The severe tone of the piece sets it apart in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon, with Sullivan's majestic score marking an attempt toward something approaching the vein of grand opera.
Next up is H.M.S. Pinafore, which NYGASP will present for two weeks in January. Gilbert and Sullivan's earliest breakout hit, H.M.S. Pinafore is a classic class comedy in which the daughter of a naval captain is engaged to marry the First Lord of the Admiralty, but is secretly in love with a lowly sailor. H.M.S. Pinafore was instantly popular upon its premiere, to the point that unlicensed productions started popping up in the United States an ocean away. It was in response to these pirates productions that Gilbert and Sullivan wrote their next opera, The Pirates of Penzance, for an American audience. H.M.S. Pinafore remains a popular cultural touchstone today, with references abounding in everything from Merrily We Roll Along to The Simpsons.
NYGASP's New York season will conclude in April with a new production of Utopia, Limited. Gilbert and Sullivan's penultimate collaboration is rarely produced, as its large principal cast, technical demands, and complex plot make it a challenging feat for most companies. One of Gilbert's most scathingly satirical libretti, Utopia, Limited takes on the topics of capitalism and imperialism, as the fictional island nation of Utopia invites six representatives from England to both Anglicize and incorporate them, with the result that the country, and every individual within it, becomes a Limited Liability Company. NYGASP last produced Utopia, Limited in 2010, and the opera has not been seen professionally in New York since then, although amateur productions were staged by the Blue Hill Troupe in 2012, and Utopia Opera (which derives its name from the opera) in 2023.
This season marks a transitional year for NYGASP, as, in addition to Associate Artistic Director James Mills taking over as artistic director, Managing Director Joseph Rubin will also take on the mantle of musical director. Hannah Holmes will also join the executive staff in the newly-created role of education manager. Executive Director David Wannen, Development Manager Sarah Caldwell Smith, Choreographer/Co-Director David Auxier, and Company Manager Michael Galante will all continue in their roles.
All three New York productions will be performed at Hunter College's Kaye Playhouse. In between the New York productions, the company will go on the road, touring a one-act version of The Pirates of Penzance in November, and their full-length production of The Mikado in March.
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