COX AND BOX/TRIAL BY JURY (University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society)****

 

By Louise

Link: https://events.umich.edu/event/83221

Available until: Shows on 8^th and 9^th May at 5pm in the UK (2pm in Michigan).

The writing team of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan are probably best-known for their longer operettas like The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore, but they also wrote some shorter works and Cox and Box and Trial by Jury work really well together.

They are presented on Zoom by the University of Michigan’s Gilbert and Sullivan Society and I think it works really well. The singers are accompanied by pianists, but th primary pianist Aleksander Polyakov and the secondary pianist (also the musical director) Laura Sweizbein are so brilliant and play with so much character, they really gave me all the orchestration I needed. Zoom is famous for its time delay so the fact the company has managed to get the singers and pianists in unison is a technological miracle and the fact the performances are so good makes it even better.

Cox and Box is a farce about a man called The Bouncer who rents a room to two men, Mr Cox and Mr Box. But they don’t know about each other. One uses the room at night, one uses it in the daytime and although they always meet on the stairs, the Bouncer cleverly switches their possessions so they have no idea of what’s going on. But when they do finally have a proper conversation, they find they have even more in common than a room.

It is set up on Zoom in the normal way, mostly with all the characters who are ‘onstage’ visible at the same time. Even though the characters aren’t in the same room or even the same house, they all have a good connection with each other. Makoto Takata is really quite as sweet Mr Box and makes a good contrast with Chazmond Peacock as the more relaxed Mr Box. They are an especially good double act and they are both very funny. Jeremy Williams characterises the Bouncer really well and he is really good at physical comedy. They all sing their roles well and they really understand how to perform Gilbert & Sullivan’s comedy.

Trial by Jury is set in a courtroom. Angelina has taken Edwin to court for breach of promise after he decided to marry another woman instead. The Judge and Jury listen to the case and consider different options before finally deciding what to do.

Imani Mchunu Grosvenor is a sparkling-voiced, glamorous and bubbly Angelina and it is hard to believe how anyone could become bored with her. Jon Roselle is a fussy and discontented (but very funny) Edwin, and Michael Sacofsky characterises the Judge perfectly. Rachel Middle gives the operetta a bit more musical variation as the Counsel for the Plaintiff, a role which was written for a baritone, but if I hadn’t known that, I would never have guessed it wasn’t written for a woman. There is also some beautiful choral singing from the Bridesmaids and the Jury. Marisa Green was the musical director for this operetta and she and her technical team have been so clever to get all these singers performing at the same time. (I’m sure they don’t have any problems with that onstage, but it really is very difficult to do that on Zoom.) I also like the way the Zoom windows are arranged in different ways on the screen so some actors are grouped together and the most important people have bigger windows.

These are two very enjoyable and impressive performances of two really funny operettas.