November 30 and December 1, 2019

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company marked the first anniversary of its performances of Gilbert and Sullivan’s music in cabaret settings with its fourth cabaret, held on Thanksgiving weekend, Saturday, November 30th and Sunday, December 1st, at Honey, in northeast Minneapolis

The cabaret was called, “From Gilbert and Sullivan to Broadway,” and was the company’s expression of gratitude to Gilbert and Sullivan for what they gave us in a century’s worth of the musical theater for which they were a significant inspiration.

Lyricists such as Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin and Oscar Hammerstein were deeply indebted to Gilbert and acknowledged that they copied the rhyme schemes and satirical lyric style that Gilbert had popularised. In a similar way, composers from George Gershwin to Jerome Kern, from Andrew Lloyd Webber to Lin Manuel Miranda admitted that they took their inspiration from Sullivan.

Composer and lyricist Johnny Mercer said, “We all come from Gilbert.” Yip Harburg, who wrote the lyrics to Harold Arlen’s songs for “The Wizard of Oz,” said, “Perhaps my first great literary idol was W. S. Gilbert. … Gilbert’s satirical quality entranced us … his use of rhyme and meter, his light touch, the marvelous way his words blended with Sullivan’s music. A revelation!”

Together, building on the foundation of the works of Gilbert & Sullivan, lyricists and composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries helped to create the wonderful world of musical theater that we all know and love today.

The “From Gilbert and Sullivan to Broadway” Cabaret cast included …

Maggie Burr, Zach Garcia, Ryan Johnson, Anna Maher, Sarah Mehle, Lara Trujillo, Lydia Wilde

… with Presenter Stephen Hage and Accompanist Jean Orbison Van Heel

The “From Gilbert and Sullivan to Broadway” Cabaret Program, First Set

From Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers

Rising Early in the Morning

From Leonard Bernstein’s Candide

We Are Women

From Stephen Schwartz’ Godspell

Beautiful City

From Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s Next to Normal

I Miss the Mountains

From Irving Berlin’s White Christmas

Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me

From Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music

Send in the Clowns

From Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado

Alone, and Yet Alive

From Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore

To a Garden Full of Roses

From Frank Wildhorne’s The Scarlet Pimpernel

When I Look at You

From Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Close Every Door to Me

The “From Gilbert and Sullivan to Broadway” Cabaret Program, Second Set

From Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe

When All Night Long

From Andrew Lippa’s The Addams Family

Pulled

From Maury Yeston’s Phantom

This Place is Mine

From Gilbert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida

O, Goddess Wise

From Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore

The Hours Creep on Apace

From Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night

So Many People

From Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man

“Til There Was You

From Frank Wildhorne’s The Scarlet Pimpernel

Storybook

From Jeanine Tesori’s Thoroughly Modern Millie

Gimme, Gimme

From Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance

I Am a Pirate King