A Rollicking Good Time

I have a neighbor who works for the Guthrie who is awesome and gracious enough to offer this poor student some free tickets every once in a while. This week has been the first time I haven't had a conflicting commitment and could graciously receive their generous offer, which is how I found myself at the H.M.S. Pinafore tonight.

I was not familiar with this work before tonight, but I figured it's Gilbert and Sullivan, you can't go wrong with that. The wit, as expected, is biting and hilarious, the cast is spot on, the set is brilliant, and the choreography is outstanding.

In fact, the only thing I did not like about this production was the orchestration in the pit. For some reason they expanded it to include modern instruments like electric guitar and bass, hammond organ, and trap set, and they altered the accompaniment to some of the pieces (the full company ones in particular) to sound more like late 20th century rock opera instead of early 20th century comic opera. It just didn't sound right, and actually became kind of annoyingly overbearing at some points (when 12 men are mic'ed and singing their hearts out I should have no problem hearing their every word but sometimes the pit overpowered them). There was less of this in the second act, for which I was grateful.

On the whole, a rollicking good time and worth your attention if you're in the Twin Cities.

And, randomly - before the show started I was looking at pictures from past productions that were all along the hallway, and I have to say there were a few faces I was quite surprised to see, I had no idea they had ever done a production at the Guthrie - these included William H. Macy, David Canary, Don Cheadle, and Kristin Chenoweth. Goes to show you learn something new every day.