‘Iolanthe’ a bumpy ride, but worth it

It’s a total anachronism, but Gilbert and Sullivan would love the introduction of cell phones into the fairyland setting of their comic opera “Iolanthe,” which the G&S Society of Hancock County opened last weekend at The Grand in Ellsworth. Initially performed at the Savoy Theatre in 1882, “Iolanthe” was the first show to be performed in a London hall lighted entirely with electric lights. There’s a certain poetic continuum about two 21st century actors finding each other’s 19th century characters onstage by dialing up on a cell phone.

Of course, any G&S opera lends itself to contemporary insertions of pop culture or local color. Audiences expect it and cheer it on. Perhaps that’s why the annual productions at The Grand draw such robust family crowds. When the curtain opens and the back drop is a cartoon rendition of a nearby golf course, applause mixes with the type of knowing laughter that means this audience is among the converted.

The G&S converted, that is. Ask your art patron friends and neighbors about Gilbert and Sullivan, and their answers are likely to fall into two categories. They love them. Or they hate them. And there’s not much middle ground.

Complicate matters with a show called “Iolanthe,” and the detractors are even more adamant. “I don’t even know how to pronounce that. I’m not going,” one person told me. Another said: “Gilbert and Sullivan? No way. I don’t get those shows.”

I’m a rare bird in that I like Gilbert and Sullivan, but it’s not my favorite musical theater. Still, I’d go to nearly anything by the G&S Society of Hancock County because the shows are infectious. Cast members believe utterly in what they are doing, and they do it with gusto.

That’s particularly true for “Iolanthe,” running through March 4. The story – roughly – is about a fairy whose dalliances with a human get her banished to a frog pond and then, when her half-fairy, half-human son falls in love with a shepherdess, the Court of the Chancery steps in, and the topsy-turviness begins. Integral to the success of the plot are crowds of female fairies and male peers from the House of Lords, as well as the gumption to be corny. Or to deliver a poem to a rap beat. Anachronism, indeed.

Director Dan Mills, with choreographer Heather Libby, moves these massive collections of people around the stage in waves and trickles. John Haskell holds cast and orchestra together with his alert music direction. For community theater, it’s an impressive, if fluttery, navigation. (Remember: They’re fairies.) And while nearly everyone in this cast misses a line or a cue or a note, the show takes flight because of a flowery ensemble spirit and a handful of standout voices – Joe Marshall as the Lord Chancellor, two lords played by Bradley Stager and David Blanchette, Jennifer Chaloult’s Leila, and Lisa Blanchette’s Iolanthe.

Veteran G&Sers Debra Hangge, Irv Hodgkin and Sandra Blanchette uphold the traditions of the company – as do many senior members in the chorus.

They’re sharing the goods with a younger generation of initiates. Indeed, one of the most entertaining performers in the show is 8-year-old Emma Forthofer whose job is to trail the wiry Lord Chancellor carrying his lengthy robe and anticipating when he might like to sit down in a chair she totes. Sometimes she mimics her pompous leader. Sometimes she delightedly focuses on the lollipop that is her prop for the first half of the show.

Sixteen-year-old Kierra Kaspala brings a powerful voice to the lead role of Phyllis, who falls in love with the cross-bred Strephon played humorously by Jim Pushard.

You won’t hear every word. You won’t get every joke. It’s unlikely that the fake elevator door will smoothly slide open. And while the cell phones and the golf theme are funny touches, they don’t illuminate as much as animate the show. Yet all these years later, the rollicking music, the lampooning winks and the wacky love story can still be electrifying – like it or not.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Hancock County will present “Iolanthe, or the Peer and the Peri,” 7 p.m. March 2 and 3, and 2 p.m. March 4 at The Grand in Ellsworth. For tickets, call 667-9500.