Dan Greenwood and Sarah Caldwell Smith in a scene from Ruddigore
(Photo credit: Noah Strone)
Considering what delightful fun New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players is offering in its new production of Ruddigore, it is surprising that this rarely performed G & S operetta isn’t seen more often. Beautifully sung, very funny, with colorful characters, unfamiliar tunes, and a coup de theatre in the famed second act make this is a welcome addition to the more usual G & S fare of H.M.S Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado.
Historically, Ruddigore was considered a failure at its premiere in 1887 running a mere eight months, after following in the wake of the fabulous two year success of The Mikado. Its score which has the requisite number of ballads, patter songs, arias, duets and trios, etc., is not one that has melodies that are easy to come out singing nor does it have many songs that are part of the concert repertory.
However, this parody of Victorian melodrama, horror and supernatural is very entertaining and its jabs are still relevant. The plot’s second act which requires that the portrait gallery come to life in Ruddigore Castle makes special demands but the new production designed by Albère, after Edward Gorey, with paintings created by Jeff Jamieson is a marvel of ingenuity and a visual delight. The perfect diction of the large cast directed by conductor Albert Bergeret and David Auxier make this a musical treat. Ruddigore was Sullivan’s first score to have specific orchestral dance music and choreographer Auxier obliges with various numbers from the hornpipe to folk dances.
As with most G & S operettas, Ruddigore’s plot contains an essential back story. Many years ago, Sir Rupert Murgatroyd, first baronet of Ruddigore, spent his time in persecuting witches. One of his victims cursed him and all of his succeeding generations from the stake: each lord of Ruddigore was required to commit a crime a day from that day forth or die a horrible death. Twenty years before the curtain rises on the town of Rederring (shades of Alfred Hitchcock), Sir Ruthven, the current baronet, ran away from this life of crime and has been disguised as Robin Oakapple, a young farmer, ever since.
In love with the town beauty Rose Maybud, Robin has been too shy to plead his case. Sir Ruthven’s young brother Sir Despard has had to carry on in the family tradition, which has driven his intended Mad Margaret into her present condition. The town’s industry of professional bridesmaids has had no work for a long time as none of the local young men will marry until Rose’s future has been decided.
Robin’s foster brother, sailor Richard Dauntless, arrives home after ten years, and Robin explains to him his problem. Richard offers to speak to Rose for him but he ends up engaged to her himself. When Robin reminds Rose of the less desirable aspects of the sailor’s life, she switches her allegiance to Robin. In revenge, Richard reveals Robin’s secret to Sir Despard who stops the wedding of Rose and Robin with the announcement that the groom is none other than the missing Sir Ruthven of the feared house of Ruddigore and Rose switches her love back to Richard.
The second act finds Sir Ruthven and his trusty servant Old Adam Goodheart a week later hating their new life of crime. When Richard and Rose arrive to ask Sir Ruthven’s blessing on their marriage, the new “bad baronet” threatens to place Rose in the dungeon and calls for assistance. At this, the pictures of his ancestors come to life and reproach him for not having fulfilled the curse’s requirements, as his daily crimes have been exceeding minor ones. When they demand that he kidnap a maiden, Sir Ruthven sends Old Adam to fulfill the order to kidnap any maiden.
Old Adam returns with Rose’s elderly aunt, Dame Hannah, formerly the fiancée of Sir Ruthven’s uncle Sir Roderic, who died ten years before. When the fearless Dame Hannah threatens the timid Sir Ruthven with a sword she takes from a suit of armor on the wall, he calls upon his uncle who obligingly steps from his portrait once more. Sir Ruthven eventually comes up with an idea that saves the day for all, and reunites him with Rose, the formerly dead Sir Roderic with Dame Hannah, while Richard is left to marry Zorah, the chief bridesmaid.
As often happens in G & S revivals, the character parts steal the show and that is the case here. Mezzo-soprano Cáitlín Burke is wonderfully antic in her mad scene, “Cheerily Carols the Lark,” and she and Richard Alan Holmes as the formerly “bad baronet” Sir Despard, are a delight when reunited in their sprightly second act duet, “I Once Was a Very Abandoned Person.” Their “Patter Trio” with David Macaluso’s Sir Ruthven, with its comic refrain “So it really doesn’t matter, matter, matter,” which is sung in full three times, each time faster than the one before, brings down the house.
Erika Person brings her rich contralto to Dame Hannah’s haunting ballad, “There Grew a Little Flower ‘neath a Great Oak Tree,” which should surely be better known. David Wannen brings his resonant bass-baritone and his sense of authority to Sir Roderic, which is enhanced by his great height, to his eerie aria, “When the Night Wind Howls in the Chimney Cowls,” as well as supporting Person in their duet of “There Grew a Little Flower.”
As the heroine Rose Maybud, soprano Sarah Caldwell Smith gives a luscious rendition of her aria, “If Someone There Chanced to Be,” and brings her vivacity to the trio, “In Sailing O’er Life’s Ocean Wide” with Dan Greenwood’s Richard Dauntless and Macaluso’s Robin Oakapple. Although baritone Macaluso doesn’t do much comedy with his timid Robin, he is very amusing when he returns to his former character of the desperate Sir Ruthven, particularly in his solo, “Away, Remorse!” which he turns into a show stopper.
Though Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore will not send you out humming its tunes which seem to be more complex than in others of their famed operettas, the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players has done wonderfully well by this rarely seen parody and will put a smile on your face. The costumes by Gail J. Wofford particularly for the ghost scene, as well as Jamieson’s portraits before they descend from the walls (which they mirror exactly), are a treat for the eye.
Ruddigore (through January 17)
New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players at New York City Center, W. 55th Street, bet. 6th and 7th Aves.
For tickets, call 212-581-1212 or http://www.nycitycenter.org