The company’s original cell phone song was performed during its 2004 production of Iolanthe.  By 2016, the company had completed its rotation through the entire Gilbert & Sullivan canon to its next staging of the operetta.  For the first time, the company had the opportunity to use a cell phone song for a second time.

Sung to the tune of “Spurn Not the Nobly Born”
Lord Tolloller’s song from Act I
Written by Ernest Brody

Performed in 2016 by Eric Mellum, accompanied by a chorus including
Tom Berg, Alexander Gerchak, Ryan Johnson, John Orbison and Felix Aguilar-Tomlinson

Performed in 2004 by James Ahrens and the Men’s Chorus

Turn off your cell phone please,
        Before it makes a racket.
It’s in your purse right now,
        Or p’rhaps it’s in your jacket.
We find it hard to sing
If it should start to ring,
So please turn off that thing,
        If you should pack it.

Cell phones!  Cell phones!

There’s one thing that we hate,
If you communicate,
While we try to orate,
Turn off your cell phones!

There’s one thing that we hate,
If you communicate,
When we try to orate,
Turn off … No cell phones!