The Sudbury Savoyards continue their now-65-year tradition of staging the works of Gilbert & Sullivan “on a grand scale” with their production of The Gondoliers, or, The King of Barataria, performed at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School from February 21st through the 28th.
The Gondoliers was the last big hit of W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan’s 25-year partnership, premiering at London’s Savoy Theatre on December 7, 1889, and running for 554 performances. Though Gilbert’s satire remained biting and Sullivan’s music spectacular, The Gondoliers suffers from a degree of bloat common in Gilbert & Sullivan’s later works: it is 50% longer and has 50% more major roles compared with HMS Pinafore (the duo’s first major hit), for instance. This was partly to accommodate the fame—and egos—of the many stars that Gilbert & Sullivan’s partnership helped launch: The Gondoliers’ eight major roles are all roughly equal, whether or not the plot strictly required it, in addition to nine smaller-named roles and a vast chorus. That gives audiences quite a lot more of Sullivan’s beautiful music, but it does present significant challenges of pacing, casting, and rehearsal economy for modern productions.
The Sudbury Savoyards took on these challenges with gusto. Gilbert’s satire, though cloaked in Victorian Briticisms, remains highly relevant today, commenting extensively on capitalism, corruption, egalitarianism, and social mobility.
Veteran Music Director Aldo Fabrizi led the 30-piece community orchestra to near-professional levels, bringing Sullivan’s beautiful score to life with brisk tempi and expressive phrasing. Stage Director Sara DeLong, making her directorial debut, found opportunities to add memorable punch and zing throughout (no one expects the Spanish bagpipes!), and navigated this complex work admirably; blocking and stage business was especially excellent with small groupings of principals. Larger scenes and songs included an ambitious amount of dancing, choreographed with entertaining touches of modern flair by Tess Klibanoff.
The lead roles included a mix of both professional performers and experienced amateurs. Tom Frates and Elaine Crane delivered skillful and memorable turns as the somewhat mercenary Duke and Duchess of Plaza-Toro. Both exhibited considerable range in executing emotionally expressive and comically punchy songs with equal prowess, and were quite successful at breathing life into some of Gilbert’s best satirical dialogue of the show despite the script’s verbosity. Their characters’ daughter Casilda was played spectacularly by Naré Kim, whose vocals especially impressed—perhaps the best singer in a cast with many superb singers. Sudbury Savoyards veteran Blair Eig as Don Alhambra Del Bolero brought excellent comic acting to his role as the dour Grand Inquisitor of Spain.
Titular Venetian gondoliers-turned-co-kings of Barataria, Marco and Giuseppe Palmieri, were played admirably by Brad Amidon and Santo Mammone, both longtime veterans of the Sudbury Savoyards. Mammone’s Act 2 solo “Rising early in the morning” was particularly memorable. Even more impressive were Danielle Shevchenko and Gretchen Struckmeyer as Gianetta and Tessa, the titular gondoliers’ wives. Collectively, their Act 1 quartet, “Regular royal queen,” was one of the high points that pulled together excellent singing, acting, stage direction, and choreography all at once, taking advantage of the particularly excellent music and memorable libretto. Their performance reminds us why “Regular royal queen” was reputed to have been Queen Victoria’s favorite during the 1891 command performance of The Gondoliers at Windsor Castle. Struckmeyer was perhaps the overall standout of the whole cast, with a warm and expressive mezzo-soprano voice coupled with impressively nuanced acting and presence (when singing, speaking, or simply visible on stage) that threaded the needle of emotionally affecting and comically brilliant.
Two other important roles merit mention: David Smyth as Luiz brought an excellent baritone and good on-stage chemistry with his love interest Casilda, and Martha Warren as Luiz’s mother Inez was a show-stopping one-scene wonder with a rich alto voice and hilarious stage business.
The performance was not without flaws, however. The Gondoliers calls for a 48-person chorus—many times what is realistic for a modern community theater production—but this production nonetheless managed a chorus of over 30. The large chorus had varied skill levels; the choreography in the large dance scenes was notably sloppy at times, which somewhat undermined the choice to lean on large-scale choreography that gives its desired impression when crisp and uniform, rather than intentionally-varied acting which is more forgiving (though this could also have been opening-night jitters). Additionally, most of the nonprofessional singers in major roles did not stand up to the vocal chops of the professional singers performing among them, though this is expected and forgivable from a nonprofessional group.
In contrast, the design and technical aspects of this production were uncommonly good, very nearly professional level. Costume Designer Sue Flint, Makeup Designer Elizabeth Stone, and Hair & Wig Coordinator Sam Sickorez did truly spectacular work throughout, best exemplified by the Duke, Duchess, and Casilda’s transformation from shabby, embarrassingly-down-on-their-luck aristocrats in Act 1 to the height of Louis-the-umteenth splendor in Act 2. All of the actors were wirelessly mic’d, which allowed Sound Designer Bill Lopoulos to expertly maintain the diction and dialogue balanced with the orchestra. Set Designers Brendon Chetwynd, Blair Eig, and Laurel Martin created an expansive, highly effective setting for the action: the columned façade of Venice’s Palazzo Ducale in Act 1 was replaced by the banner-festooned interior of Barataria’s throne room in Act 2 with perfect economy of pieces. Lighting Designer Jeremy Behrle put on a feast for the eyes, with excellent and subtly sophisticated choices, and the most impressively lit and realistic skysheet that this reviewer has ever seen in a community production.
The Gondoliers remains a relevant work despite its challenges, and the Sudbury Savoyards have mounted a delightful production of it, handily exceeding expectations for community theater and often approaching those of a professional production.
Tickets for Friday, February 27, 2026, 7:30 PM and Saturday, February 28, 2026, 1:30 PM & 7:30 PM are HERE.
Nathaniel Koven studied voice and piano from a young age, and has a particular passion for light opera and musical theater. He has sung with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and has been an actor, singer, stage director, and producer of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas at Harvard from 2008-2011 and MIT from 2012-2015.
Lighting Designer Jeremy Berle utilized a combination of gobos and other cunning lighting methods to create exquisite clouds of gently shifting colors on the cyc backdrop.
Lower Photo: Becca Bly as Fiametta, Danielle Shevchenko as Gianetta, Gretchen Struckmeyer as Tessa, and Ensemble (Chris Pollari photos)
I think this review was overly generous but will only specify one point of disagreement. The sound design was very poorly executed, with volumes that sometimes reached painful levels (I sat in the middle of the auditorium about halfway back from the stage). In the large ensemble numbers, whenever an individual voice broke out into a solo, one could only identify the singer by looking at whose lips were moving since the loudspeakers above the stage projected all the voices in a monoaural wall of sound. With so many experienced operatic voices in the cast, a lower volume would have sufficed and allowed some portion of the natural voices to reach the audience, with the amplification boosting instead of overwhelming the singers. This was not my first Sudbury Savoyards production, but it may be my last. I hope someone from the organization reads my comments and makes needed adjustments.
Comment by Rob — February 28, 2026 at 7:56 pm
A well-written review, covering all the contributions to a successful performance, including behind-the-scenes.
Comment by Katherine Matasy — February 25, 2026 at 8:41 pm
This was a fantastic review of The Gondeliers
We are friends of Gretchen’s from Raleigh.
We would have enjoyed seeing this wonderful performance!
Comment by Mike and Ginny Byrnd — February 25, 2026 at 9:48 am