Yeomen of the Guard '68

Review of Yeoman '68

Student Times

Gilbert and Sullivan
by Barbara Alpers

The Boston University Savoyards production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Yeomen of the Guard, the frivolous tale of a prisoner's impersonation of a Yeoman in order to escape from the Tower of London, was not exactly professional but it was hilarious and it had its moments.
Robert Osolinski was the apogee of ugliness as the head jailor who pursues the hand of Phoebe Meryll, the chief guardsman's daughter. Sully Schlegel as Dame Carruthers, whose voice and acting were both admirable, lent a mature dimension to the cast. Robert Shepherd as Colonel Fairfax, the prisoner, has a resonant voice but his movements were wooden.
It was Jay Perry in his role of jester Jack Point who woos the frail lovely Elsie Maynard, Faifax's bride, (he "dies for the love of a lady") who stole the show. In "A Tale of Cock and Bull" which he sings and performs with Osolinski the two earned by far the loudest applause and were really hilarious, "lagging and wagging" away while the fat jailor's artificial paunch was sagging away.
In the quartet "Strange Adventure" we heard Sullivan at his best and Juliet Cunningham as Kate revealed a fine soprano voice that I wish had been given a larger part.
As the evening wore on, one overlooked the fact that the costumes were cheap gauze and the piano accompaniment unmelodic and found himself caught up in the "conundrums" of lively plot and action, the silly, clever Gilbert lines which were articulated well, and the ever-so-symmetrically typically English Sullivan music. It was truly one of the most enjoyable performance I've seen recently.

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