Gilbert & Sullivan’s Trial by Jury and sing-along
Our Award: 4 Fringes
by Joel Markowitz
How can you resist the pitter patter, the puns, the catchy melodies of a Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta? I can’t! I’m a G&S fan.
Herbert Hoover Middle School ‘s The G&S Youth Players is a new company dedicated to presenting the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, as well as rarely performed operettas and early musicals. The talented performers, ages 12-25, are middle school, high school and college students, who sing like experienced professionals.What a delight it was to see the families of the singers in the audience – mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and grandparents beaming as their children and grandchildren performed so enthusiastically. I could understand every precious and punny lyric because these young singers were trained well by musical and stage director Pamela Leighton-Bilik and vocal coach and excellent accompanist Danielle Dobny.
A special nod to Michael Tseng who played Edwin, the defendant, with great confidence and cockiness. It’s not easy to enunciate every one of these punny lyrics, like these, but Michael delivered his songs with perfect clarity. I understood every word. Great job Michael!”
When first my old, old love I knew,
My bosom welled with joy;
My riches at her feet I threw –
I was a love-sick boy!
No terms seemed too extravagant
Upon her to employ –
I used to mope, and sigh, and pant,
Just like a love-sick boy!
Tink-a-tank, tink-a-tank, tink-a-tank.”
Another congrats to Shelby Sikes, whose powerfully gorgeous voice brought grace and humor to the jilted fiancée, Angelina. It was a joy to watch families sing along with the young performers during the G&S Sing-Along, which followed the Mini Trial By Jury. Voices were raised towards the heavens as the audience joined in on excerpts from The Mikado, Pirates of Penzance and HMS Pinafore. A special nod to Sarah Hutzinger and Alexandra Morton, who thrilled us all with their energetic rendition of Poor Wandering One from Pirates of Penzance.
Tink-a-tanks for a wonderful time!
(Running time: 60 minutes). Note: This show is now closed.
Dear Joel,
Thank you very much for your wonderful review of our Trial By Jury at
the DC Fringe Festival. You were most kind and I’m glad you enjoyed the show. We certainly enjoyed putting it together. Although Pamela Leighton-Bilik is the theatre teacher at Hoover Middle School, the G & S Youth Players is a new independent performing company, not associated with Hoover or MCPS.
Again, we thank you for attending and for your review. We’d love to
see you again at our next production.
Sincerely,
Marsha Boymel
Producer, G & S Youth Players