I’ve been through this before, but our local NYC G&S society is an appreciation society, not a performance group, so their meetings are basically attending and enjoying concerts of outside groups, or programs put together by members. I’ve been performing in and producing these concerts on and off for years – it’s a great low-pressure setting to have some fun and be a little experimental.

When I have the great good fortune to land the MD job for a particular show at the G&S festival in England, I grab the opportunity to do a concert of the same show (and the same cast members, as much as possible) at the Society a few months before. It forces me (and the cast) to really take a look at the score, give it a dry run and see what needs more attention than other spots. This year, though, I’m not the conductor of the Festival show, but decided to grab the slot and produce it anyway, with my partner in crime, Marisa, a fine MD in her own right, who will be producing this summer’s Mikado.

Unlike last year, when our Ruddigore UK cast was actually mostly New Yorkers, this year, only one NYer got a lead (Sam S as Ko-Ko, fine casting). Some others of us are going as chorus. So Marisa and I basically just cast our friends. Most of the organizing took place via email, and we had one rehearsal the weekend before the Monday performance, at Sam’s house (thanks, Sam!) and of course we all went out for drinks and food afterward.

The Monday performance went very well, for what it was worth. I conducted and also sang Pish-Tush (a role I’d done in the same setting at my first ever Society concert some 25 years ago). Marisa played piano. The audience sang chorus and everyone had a great time. I will say, I kind of wish the concerts weren’t quite so loosey-goosey and informal – perhaps next time I’ll try to raise the seriousness quotient, even though what we’re doing is inherently very silly material. But we did what we came to do and it was great fun.

Front row: Lauren (Peep-Bo), Laura (Yum-Yum), Sam (Ko-Ko), Alexis (Pitti-Sing), Marisa
Back row: Sharon (Katisha), Chaz (Nanki-Poo), Martin (Pooh-Bah), Natan (Mikado) and me

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Side note: the week of the concert, I’d done a very quick google search for “Pish Tush” and used this image as my FB profile pic for a little bit. I saw that it was an ad, but didn’t notice (or care) what it was for.

My father commented the following:
I see the spool of J&P Coats thread. My maternal grandfather was their plant engineer in 1922. Piece of electrical gear broke down on the line. It didn’t stop the line , but needed to be fixed. They made him fix it with the line still running and the electricity still hot. he was electrocuted in the process. He had warned management that someone was going to get killed if they didn’t change their policy. It turned out to be him.

Jeezus Christ. On the other hand, that’s right in line with all the deaths threatened in The Mikado.