Gilbert & Sullivan put Grand in stitches Troupe nails program of ‘Trial’ and ‘Pinafore’

Geoffrey Shovelton has been singing the words of W.S. Gilbert and music of Arthur Sullivan for 40 years. That’s 10 years longer than the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Hancock County, of which he is artistic director, has been presenting G&S shows Down East. That makes for a total of 70 years experience at work in the double program of “Trial By Jury” and “H.M.S. Pinafore” playing through Feb. 5 at The Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth.

If you’re already a G&S fan who has been following the 30-year progress of this local troupe, you’ll leave the theater humming, possibly skipping, well into next week. Even at three hours total running time, this community show zips by – partially because the production values and vision are so smart and partially because music director Lud Hallman (who adds another four decades of expertise to the tally) has the orchestra and singers clipping along.

If you somehow still are among the steely, sourpuss G&S detractors – the ones who say, “Ew, I hate that music!” – then you should not go to this show. It’s too good for you. But a word to the operatically wise: Go and you’ll melt into a fan of the music and the company.

Hallman, who is a professor of music and a graduate of both Oberlin College and the Salzburg Mozarteum, could (and does) spend his time working on loftier projects. Credentials aside, he also finds professional delight in Gilbert and Sullivan.

“We had John Philip Sousa. The French had Offenbach. The Austrians had Strauss. I put Gilbert and Sullivan into that category,” he said. “I’m having a good time. I’m sorry, but I am.”

As much as anyone onstage, Hallman is fired up in the orchestra pit, prompting musicians with encouraging smiles and chuckling under his baton at onstage gags he has presumably seen since rehearsals began last fall.

“That’s what these shows are supposed to be about,” said Hallman. “They’re funny.”

Every other year, the society does one of the duo’s “big three” popular operettas. “Pinafore” is one of them. (The other two are “Pirates of Penzance” and “The Mikado.”) The off years – say, “Iolanthe,” “The Sorcerer” and the obscure “Utopia, Unlimited,” for which the company won first prize in the 1994 International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England – draw smaller and equally fervent audiences. “Pinafore” packed them in this weekend, with audience members that, like the company itself, range in age from very young to not so very young.

The best amateur G&S groups have that family feeling, said Shovelton, who spent seven years as a principal tenor with London’s famed D’Oyly Carte Opera Company before retiring to north New Portland four years ago. His wife Deborah Clague, with whom he still performs at venues outside the state, is the show’s choreographer, and the same raising-the-bar label applies to her. What Shovelton has done to sharpen style and Hallman has done to pump up the orchestra and singers, she has matched in dance and gesture.

“The secret of Gilbert’s humor is to do ridiculous things with absolute seriousness,” Shovelton said at a break during Sunday’s performance. “I encourage them not to telegraph the humor. When I arrived, we had to convince them that doing it with discipline would be fun. The fun of Gilbert and Sullivan is doing it well.”

When the company was doing its own costumes, sets and makeup and mounting shows for under $15,000 – GSSHC now has a paid artistic team and budgets as high as $40,000 per show – it had tremendous spirit. So it’s not as if the company has been transformed by the Shovelton-Hallman-Clague collaboration. One could accurately say, however, that the company has increasingly realized its potential.

“Thirty years is a nice benchmark,” said producer John Dundas. “That’s almost unheard of in a small community theater group that is self-sustaining. Our financial statements look better every year. Why is that? I’m not sure, but I think there’s an esprit de corps within the company. I’m sure luck entered into it somewhere.”

A relative newcomer, Dundas’ first G&S show as a performer was “Pirates” five years ago. Even he didn’t quite “get” the G&S groove immediately but was attracted by the enthusiasm of the company. “I didn’t understand the words or the music,” he confessed. “But every year I learned more, and now I find it funnier and funnier.”

And relevant. “Pinafore,” while primarily a love story, also tells of the dubious rise to power of the First Lord of the Admiralty: Rather than go to sea, he simply sat at his desk long enough to get promoted. The show may take place in England, some cast members said, but it could just as easily be poking fun at the U.S. government today.

Zach Field, who plays the role with utter restraint, peppers his performance with Jerry Lewis-like bursts of shtick, yet still manages to be a fine example of the moderation Shovelton requires of his cast members. He is well matched by David Wilson, as the ship’s captain, Lindsay Wilson as the captain’s forlornly in love daughter, and Deborah Hangge as Little Buttercup. The patter trio with the two Wilsons and Field is likely to be one of the funniest G&S scenes in the company’s history. In two performances, it got the biggest laughs and applause of the day.

Steve Elliot, who plays Ralph Rackstraw, the romantic lead, is a standout. In looks, he is a cross between an Italian tenor and Robert Goulet. But his performance is all his own, charming and skillful both vocally and theatrically. He has been with the company for more than 10 years, and like David Wilson, exemplifies the high quality singers G&S attracts and that Maine quietly harbors in its small towns and cities.

“Trial,” which opens the program, is a mini opera, a little love story in which Edwin (David Blanchette) falls in love with someone other than his betrothed Angelina (Lisa Blanchette), who consequently sues him for breach of contract but forgives him when the judge (David Wilson, again), fed up with negotiations, marries her himself. It’s not Gilbert and Sullivan’s first collaboration, but it is the one that established them as a team.

In 30 years, this is the fourth time the society has combined “Trial” and “Pinafore,” and it proves the staying power of not only the music but of a tenacious community troupe and its successful mission to “promote, produce, protect and preserve” Gilbert and Sullivan works in the area.

The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Hancock County will present “Trial By Jury” and “H.M.S. Pinafore” Feb. 3-5 at The Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth. For tickets, call 667-9500 or visit www.grandonline.org. Alicia Anstead can be reached at 990-8266 and aanstead@bangordailynews.net.