Future Shows

Utopia, Limited – Spring 2024

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is pleased to announce that it will present its revised version of Utopia, Limited, for four weekends, from March 1st through March 24th of 2024.

Our revised version of Utopia, Limited takes place on a South Pacific island. The inhabitants are of British descent, people whose great-great-grandparents had arrived to settle the uninhabited island over a century ago.  During the years before the story takes place, Utopia has developed into an independent nation, which has recently renewed its relations with Britain. 

Princess Zara returns to Utopia, after having completed her studies at Cambridge University’s Girton College, with a plan to free her father from the machinations of the two judges of the Utopian Supreme Court, by remodeling Utopia’s government. Are Princess Zara’s reforms, however, too successful?  

Our company has revised Utopia, Limited to address both the literary and structural issues with the operetta and the issues of racism and imperialism implicit in the original script.  We encourage you to read about our revisions on our website’s Utopia, Limited Revised page and to review the revised script. 

It is our hope that our revision version Utopia, Limited, which we share freely, will help to make it possible for Utopia, Limited to become an operetta that is performed far more regularly by Gilbert and Sullivan companies around the world.

All performances will be at the Howard Conn Fine Arts Center, at Plymouth Congregational Church, located at 1900 Nicollet Avenue South, in Minneapolis.  Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 7:30 pm.  The Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2:00 pm.

If you would like to be notified about when to order tickets, we invite you to add your name to our mailing list. This way, we will know how to contact you!  We never sell our mailing list to other parties.

The Mikado – Fall 2024

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is currently planning to present The Mikado for four weekends, in the fall of 2024.

This reimagined version of the show is set in the highlands of Scotland and retitled The McAdo.

Lanky Doug, a strolling minstrel, arrives in the Scottish town of Ballydew, seeking to marry the beautiful Wynn Somme. He learns, however, that Wynn Somme is already engaged to Coco, a cheap tailor, who has been unexpectedly raised the rank of Lord High Executioner. Heartbroken, Lanky Doug contemplates suicide. In the meantime, Coco is unable to find someone to execute, as he must do, before the arrival of the clan Laird, The McAdo. Coco hits on a plan that will solve both of their problems. He will offer Lanky Doug a month of marriage to Wynn Somme if Lanky Doug allows Coco to execute him at the end of that month. What Coco doesn’t realize is that Lanky Doug is the son of The McAdo and has run away to avoid marriage to the bloodthirsty Katishagh. The arrival of The McAdo complicates matters, but ultimately brings the story to a delightful, satisfying conclusion.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company recognizes the issues with The Mikado and the negative racial stereotypes that traditional stagings of the work have perpetuated with their “yellowface” portrayal of Asian characters by primarily Caucasian actors. While some theater companies have responded to the issue by deciding not to perform the piece, the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company believes that The Mikado is an extraordinary theatrical work that should be performed, with the firm conviction that that which is best about the piece … its hilarious storyline, its delightful dialogue, and its beautiful music … can be preserved while that which is problematic can be removed. Like other companies that choose to produce The Mikado, the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company understands that in order do so, the operetta must be “reimagined” to eliminate the negative racial stereotypes.

In our 2019 production of The Mikado, Rick Shiomi directed the company in his reimagined version of the operetta, set in England. For this upcoming production, the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company owes an extraordinary debt of gratitude to the members of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin, who invited and strongly encouraged the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company to produce its reimagined version of the operetta, set in Scotland. Surprisingly few changes to Gilbert’s libretto and Sullivan’s score were necessary to transport the story to Scotland, which was accomplished primarily and successfully through scenery and costuming. The fact that it is possible to transport this operetta from its original to a new setting speaks to the underlining universality of the piece as a delightful commentary on human folly and isn’t tied to one fictional local or another.

Echoing and quoting what Rick Shiomi said in a Star Tribune of the Twin Cities article regarding our 2019 production, it is our hope that this reimagined production will provide Gilbert and Sullivan audiences and companies around the world with another “way to produce this classic without all the negative stereotypes and yellowface” and that this Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin version offers “the opportunity to save the work’s wonderful art without offending whole communities.”

As with our 2019 production, Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company chooses to create art that is edifying and respectful of all human beings. We fail to do so if we ignore the clearly and reasonably articulated experience of others merely for the sake of theatrical tradition. We succeed however, when we create art with integrity, while at the same time, taking the position of standing for what is right for all humanity.

Patience – Spring 2025

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is pleased to announce that it will present Patience, for four weekends, in the spring of 2025.

Patience opens with all the well-born young ladies in the local village, rapturously caught up in aestheticism, and in love with two aesthetic poets. The poets, however, are both in love with Patience, the simple village milkmaid, who cares nothing for poetry. Patience learns that true love must be completely unselfish … it must wither and sting and burn! The young ladies’ military suitors don’t see the point to aestheticism, but they decide to give it a try to win the women’s hearts. It is “touch and go” for a while, but everyone ends up with a suitable partner, even if it is only a tulip or lily.

Patience satirizes the “aesthetic craze” of the 1870s and ’80s, when the output of poets, composers, painters and designers of all kinds was indeed prolific, but, some argued, empty and self-indulgent. This artistic movement was so popular, and so easy to ridicule as a meaningless fad, that it made Patience a big hit in its day. The operetta remains relevant as it can be understood to satirize the adherents to all fads!

All performances will be at the Conn Theater, at Plymouth Congregational Church, located at 1900 Nicollet Avenue South, in Minneapolis. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 7:30 pm. The Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2:00 pm.

If you would like to be notified about when to order tickets, we invite you to add your name to our mailing list. This way, we will know how to contact you! We never sell our mailing list to other parties.