The voice of one

Actor Tom Bair’s recitation of the entire Gospel According to St. Mark is not just an astonishing tour de force of memorization, but a riveting journey through a text that seems familiar but sometimes raises more questions than it answers.

Premiering on Oct. 15 at New York’s United Solo TheatreFestival, a ten-week series of solo performances, “St. Mark’s Gospel” runs about two hours and contains all 15,992 words of the King James version. Sold out on Oct. 15, another show was added on Nov. 15.

This initial performance took place in a small, off-Broadway black-box theater. With no scenery except gray walls, the set consisted of a red patio table and two chairs. Bair was seated onstage, occasionally consulting a cell phone.

As the house lights dimmed, Japanese composer Shigemasa Nakano’s ethereal music filled the room; sounds of traffic were also heard and Bair’s cell phone rang. He answered it, then put it away and strode forward to stand at center stage.

Tom Bair in St. Mark's Gospel

Looking directly at the audience, with an open stance, he began with a sense of earnest energy: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God.” This Gospel gets right into the action, with none of the introductory words of the other three. By the third line, John the Baptist is introduced: “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”

It’s easy to listen to Bair’s "voice of one," with its medium weight and legato dynamics. This master actor skillfully maintains the tension of the narrative. One joy of this production is that when the inevitable mind-wandering occurs over the two hours, it doesn’t last long because Bair’s varied line readings, vocal projection and crystal-clear articulation bring the attention back.

Director Kathleen Conry’s blocking also captures our interest, as Bair leans against a wall as a bystander in the temple, or uses the table and chairs – most effectively when he sets a chair at center stage and circles it, mocking the unseen man wearing purple and a crown of thorns.

Bair’s physical grace is most effective -- when the man with the withered hand is healed, Bair’s outstretched hand straightens in a subtle gesture. When he’s speaking as a character, he delicately varies his vocal pitch, so the focus remains on the words. 

 

People usually encounter the Gospel in bits – the Sunday readings or the Bible study passages – and hearing the text in one sitting identifies recurring themes. This listener wondered why Mark’s Gospel is obsessed with Jesus’ healing miracles and the fact that he often says “tell no man” they occurred, but people spread the news anyway.

Mark is the shortest Gospel of the four and as Bair unfolds the narrative, we realize there’s no Nativity in this Gospel and no Pentecost. No "good Samaritan," no wedding at Cana, no Sermon on the Mount.

We wonder why the writer is so careful with very precise identifications of place – “They came into the land of Gennasaret” … “He arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon”? These details and several phrases quoting Jesus in his language, Aramaic, lead some to believe that this was an eyewitness account and the source was St. Peter.

How exciting it is, therefore, to hear this Gospel verbally as if that eyewitness had just touched us on the arm, eager to share his story. In “St. Mark’s Gospel,” Bair uses all of his considerable gifts to create a brilliant theatrical and inspirational experience.

Note: in an interview after the performance, Bair said he used the ancient “loci” (locations) memorization technique, where the speaker imagines walking through a place he knows well and uses its rooms or features as prompts. In Bair’s case, it was the Church of the Transfiguration in New York, also known as the “Little Church Around the Corner” and associated with the theatrical community. 

If a church or organization wants to host a performance of “St. Mark’s Gospel,” Bair may be reached at bairtom@gmail.com. Click here for his website.

Stratford at its peak

When a play production fires on all cylinders, it can be likened to any kind of moving masterpiece that inspires wonder - say, a finely-tuned Porsche racing car going 175 mph.

The Stratford Festival's current offering of The Beaux' Stratagem is just such a complete piece of theatrical joy that you want to savor the experience even as you're enjoying it. In fact, the gentleman from Connecticut sitting next to me was back for a second time.

George Farquhar's 1707 script is the first Restoration comedy produced at Stratford since 1995 and the description refers to the return of Charles II to the British throne in 1660 and the re-opening of the theaters after the Puritan reign.

The story begins with the classic device - a stranger rides into town. Only this time, they're two strangers - London gentlemen named Archer (Colm Feore) and Aimwell (Mike Shara) (nearly all the names are puns) who've blown through their fortunes down to the last £200 and desperately need to find rich wives. "There is no scandal like rags, nor any crime so shameful as poverty," says Archer. The two have hit the road alternating the roles of master and servant. The alternative? Go sign up with the Duke of Marlborough's men and fight the French.

Colm Feore as Archer
Photos/Michael Cooper

More suited to the boudoir than the battlefield, they find a pair of lovely ladies, sweet Dorinda (Bethany Jillard) and her sister-in-law Mrs. Sullen (Lucy Peacock), unhappily married to the drunken Squire Sullen (Scott Wentworth). The household also includes the dotty Lady Bountiful (Martha Henry), someone we'd describe as a naturopath today, obsessed with healing herbs.

The gents take up residence at an inn run by the scheming Boniface (Robert King), with his whip-smart daughter Cherry (Sara Farb). An actual gang of highwaymen in league with Boniface arrives to rob Lady Bountiful's household and comic chaos ensues.

One of the many triumphs of this production is director Antoni Cimolino's sure hand with both the rapid wit of the script, the genuine sweet heart at its core and the physical comedy of the situations.

Lady Bountiful attempts to heal Aimwell.

The performances, scene changes and music (by Stratford Director of Music Emeritus Berthold Carriere) crackle with speed and energy.

Patrick Clark's clever set design, with elements carried on and off by the cast, beautifully alternates between inn and estate.

Among the standout scenes: Feore smoothly wooing an amused Peacock as they regard the mansion's gallery of paintings.

As both play director and the festival's artistic director, Cimolino has attracted a cast of all-stars. Feore and Shara are coolly charming rogues, until their hearts are really touched by love. Jillard gives Dorinda some real spine and Peacock radiantly communicates Mrs. Sullen's desires and regrets.

For the great Martha Henry, there are no small parts. Whether she is brandishing a large cucumber or entering prepared to fight the housebreakers clad in half a suit of armor and waving a giant sword, the entire audience is helpless with laughter.

In the wonderful scene in the photo above, Aimwell (on chaise) has faked a fit in order to get access to Dorinda (at right) as Mrs. Sullen (left) and Archer (center) look on, and Lady Bountiful practically pumps his arm off as part of her healing arts.

Scott Wentworth as Squire Sullen

Giving credit to the depth of this cast, Scott Wentworth makes Squire Sullen both repellent and subtly sympathetic since he, too, is trapped in a marriage he hates. Evan Buliung as Count Bellair (there's a company of French officers under house arrest at the inn - of course) creates a ridiculously funny comic accent without offensiveness.

Gordon S. Miller's Scrub, servant to the Bountiful household, is a genuine riot of obsequiousness and anxiety. Actors who have had lead roles in other Stratford productions - Chick Reid and Tara Rosling - here make their marks in the minor roles of a countrywoman and a gipsy. Michael Spencer-Davis' fraud of a clergyman, Foigard, makes the most of a variety of accents as the character unconvincingly takes on several nationalities.

At this Sunday matinee, my friend from Connecticut, his wife and I remarked on the number of empty seats - perhaps one-fourth of the auditorium - that were evident on what one would think would be a popular day and time.

The festival has twice extended King Lear, also starring Feore, but there should be an equal rush for tickets to The Beaux' Stratagem, which, let's face it, has a lot more laughs. Go see it now.

The delights of summer theater

A leisurely trip along country roads ... Shakespeare amid rustling leaves ... sundresses and sandals ... a pre-show picnic -- these are just a few of the special qualities of summer theater, where atmosphere and environment are as much part of the experience as what's onstage.

So far this summer, theater appointments have included John Lithgow in King Lear at the Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park (Central Park, Manhattan). As one who has experienced Christopher Plummer's and William Hutt's towering interpretations of the role at Canada's Stratford Festival, I felt that, for me, it was a tall order from the beginning for Lithgow to compete.

John Lithgow as King Lear

He's a terrific actor, no question, with classical training. I've seen him achieve greatness in modern roles, most recently in The Columnist on Broadway, and in person, he comes across as an essentially nice, decent man. This Lear began in a relaxed mood as Dad decides to give each of his three daughters a third of his kingdom and retire to a life of hunting and fun with his knights.

As the play progresses and this act proves to be a tragic mistake, Lithgow ably mines the pathos and pitiable nature of Lear's fall into madness and then his comprehension of the true nature of love.

However, the fall becomes most breathtaking from an authoritative, kingly height. Both Hutt and Plummer's monarchs began the play firmly in control, with a very sharp edge. I can still hear Plummer's voice chiding Cordelia, who refuses to suck up to Dad like her two sisters - "Nothing will come from 'nothing.'" In that one sentence, he was saying, "Watch it, kid, you sure you want to say that?" Dangerous - and thrilling.
 
In this Lear, amidst the pleasures of green Central Park ... less danger, less thrill.

*   *   *

Green pleasures abound in the lake district of Ontario north of Toronto called (for obvious reasons) "cottage country." Theater was slow to grow in Canada as the country built up a decent population base, really only coming to maturity with Stratford's founding in 1953, but before that there was (and still is) a lively tradition of local summer theater.

I travelled to Bala, Ontario, a small town on Lake Muskoka about 120 miles north of Toronto, to narrate two staged play readings as part of the Actors Colony Theatre festival, recently revived under Artistic Producer Eva Moore and continuing a tradition that began in Bala with the first straw hat theater season in Canada in 1934.

The two plays, Skin Deep by Trish West and Swing Dance by Lynda Martens, were winners in the Writers' Springboard playwriting competition, where I've been one of the judges for several years.

Skin Deep

Swing Dance

They're both fine plays, deserving of full productions, and my job as narrator was simply to read appropriate stage directions, filling in the spaces that would be obvious in a fully-staged version.

The casts were uniformly excellent, under the direction of Rand Houghton for Skin Deep and Annette Procunier for Swing Dance. The photos above are from different productions, but cast members for Skin Deep were Peter Shipston, Andrea Vander Kooij, Isabelle Ellis and Robyn MacDonald. Swing Dance featured Frank Johnston, Kay Valentine, Rand Houghton and Dalene Flannigan.  

I was struck, again, by the power of theater, since each director and cast had taken such care with their readings, scheduling rehearsals, bringing props and costume accessories, creating sound effects, even in Rand's case, bringing two lights and stands. 

Why? The audiences were appreciative, but small - about 20 people each time. We were all drawn there by the power of a compelling story, well told. In Skin Deep, a mother copes with cancer, its physical changes and its effect on her family. In the heartfelt comedy Swing Dance, a long-married couple reassess their relationship after the husband retires.

Those 20 people were riveted and some eyes were moist as Rachel faced her fears. The next night, they laughed as Walter tried to revive his spirit through the unaccustomed activities of yoga and drumming and Vicky seeks a new career. 

The weather may be warm and it may be "straw hat," but it's real theater.

Songs for the ages

The stage of the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, N.Y. is usually dominated by a large white screen. On July 10, it shared space with four guitars, three banjos and a violin propped up on stands – signals of an evening devoted to folk music icon and activist Pete Seeger.

With clips from the film Pete Seeger: The Power of Song and live performances by folk singers Tom Chapin, Mike Merenda and Ruth Ungar, the evening kicked off “Sounds of Summer,” a festival of documentaries about music, running until Aug. 31.

“We certainly believe in the power of song to make the world a better place,” said John Platt, the evening’s host and director of communications & special projects at WFUV, the Fordham University-based radio station that is the series’ media partner.

The festival includes films on Woody Guthrie, Amy Winehouse, David Bromberg, Sgt. Pepper, Balkan brass music, gospel music, retired opera singers, indie pop and a restored 50^th anniversary release of A Hard Day’s Night, the ultimate “music video.”

Folk singer Tom Chapin, with images of Pete and Toshi Seeger on screen.
Photo/Lynda Shenkman Curtis

Several of the screenings also will be accompanied by Q&As and performances, such as Ndiphilela Ukucula: I Live to Sing, which is about black opera singers from South Africa’s townships  studying at the once all-white University of Cape Town Opera School. One of the singers, baritone Thesele Kemane, who starts at Juilliard in the fall, will perform at the film’s screening on Aug. 25.

Seeger’s magnetism as a performer and his conviction that music holds us together and calls to our higher natures was apparent from the first few frames of The Power of Song. In black and white concert footage, Seeger, chin typically tilted upward, is playing guitar and singing Jacob’s Ladder.

“We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder,” he sings, as a few audience members join in. Breaking off, he says in his distinctively clear, trumpet-like voice, “I don’t hear you!” and the singing in the auditorium swells on the next few lines until he is accompanied by a chorus of hundreds.

Seeger, who died last January at age 94, lived in Beacon and had an intimate connection with Westchester through his music and the Clearwater initiative to clean up the Hudson River. The film traces his eventful life, from his early years researching American folk music with historian Alan Lomax, through World War II military service to commercial success with The Weavers quartet.

In the 1950s, Seeger, a former Communist Party member, was blacklisted and refused to answer questions about his loyalties from the House Un-American Activities Committee. He said that as an American, his political and social beliefs were a private matter and their questioning was “immoral.” In the film, he is asked if he was frightened by that time. No, he said, because “I really believed in the long run that this country doesn’t go in for things like that.”

The film was paused several times to allow Chapin, Merena and Ungar to perform some of Seeger’s most beloved songs, with the audience enthusiastically joining in. Seeger composed or popularized such standards as Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, Turn, Turn, Turn and If I Had a Hammer. The film also describes Seeger’s part in making We Shall Overcome the anthem of the African-American civil rights movement and Waist Deep in the Big Muddy a searing indictment of the Vietnam War.

Platt interviewed on stage Seeger’s grandson, filmmaker Kitama Cahill-Jackson, and Guthrie’s granddaughter, Anna Canoni. Cahill-Jackson particularly noted Seeger’s late wife Toshi’s essential management of family and career. “If you see a homeless person playing on the street, that would have been Pete without my grandmother,” he said.

The Guthrie and Seeger families are still very close, said Canoni, adding that Seeger edited some of Guthrie’s early song versions, making lyrics simpler so they were easier for everyone to sing. “Pete found a way to make [a song] bigger,” said Canoni.

Cahill-Jackson noted that SeegerFest, a festival of free music and events, will take place July 17-21 in various New York City and Hudson Valley locations. Sing-alongs, of course, are part of it.

This story first appeared HERE. 

The whole world is listening

One of the most unsung (pun intended) aspects of theater is sound. It was the technical job I enjoyed most, choosing a musical and sound landscape for several community-theater plays in Ontario (winning awards along the way) and doing sound design for several school musicals in New York.

The sound designer affects, even manipulates, the audience's emotions and quite often, they don't even realize it.

I recently covered for the website allaboutbedford the opening of a mind-expanding sound art exhibit:

The Caramoor Center in Katonah, which usually presents a wide range of summer music, expanded its sound palette with the June 7 opening of “In the Garden of Sonic Delights,” a fascinating collection of installations throughout the 90-acre grounds.

Six years in the making, “Sonic Delights” also involves works at five other locations in Westchester, including the Jacob Burns Film Center and the Lyndhurst historic mansion, and runs through Nov. 2. Full details are available here.

At Caramoor, opening day patrons enjoyed a sunny afternoon as they encountered 15 sound experiences in open grass fields or tucked into the Italianate buildings and gardens of the estate.

"The Pianohouse" sound art by Trimpin.

German artist Trimpin contributed “The Pianohouse,” a structure built from discarded Steinway piano soundboards and featuring various items such as hammers that strike or pluck the strings. A visitor can push an attached doorbell, setting off a random array of Rube Goldberg-like actions and creating a strange and wondrous song.

At an afternoon panel discussion, Trimpin noted that even a disability is no bar to having “a great experience” at “The Pianohouse,” as a blind person can touch the exhibit and a deaf person can feel the vibrations.

“Over time, ‘The Pianohouse’ will musically ‘deconstruct’ itself, as a result of weather and other environmental conditions. The instruments will collectively experience these effects, slowly changing the pitch and other parameters,” Trimpin wrote in the exhibit program.

All of the installations were newly commissioned and interact with their environment. “Wild Energy,” by Annea Lockwood and Bob Bielecki, buried 18 speakers in a leafy grove. A sign identifies the earth sounds that were recorded and are broadcast through the speakers. They include whale song, very low frequency radio waves, gas vents and the crack of an earthquake. Two hammocks induce visitors to lie down and listen deeply.

“We were tantalized by the vibrational data central to the running of the planet. These vibrations are passing through our bodies. I started getting fixated on (the PBS science show) Nova and we accumulated sound files from many scientists,” Lockwood said at the panel discussion.

“Sonic Delights” Curator and Artistic Director Stephan Moore noted that the exhibits run through the fall and that the natural environment will change the experience. He urged participants to “come back when the cicadas are out and the leaves are falling.”

The opening day program also presented a sound art concert. Under the white Reception Tent, the audience was seated in concentric circles, facing outward.

Moore and Scott Smallwood (whose installation, “Coronium 3500 (Lucie’s Halo),” consisted of tiny solar panels on stilts making delicate noises) were seated at the center of the tent.

As a duo called Evidence, they played software instruments to create a variety of sounds that played off and interacted with each other – crickets, thumps, taps, chimes, surf, rain, murmured voices.

The work also created emotion, often depending upon tempo. For this listener, the deep chug-chug of what sounded like the heartbeat of the world resulted in a surprising sense of need and longing. Ears that are usually attuned to music at first heard the soundscape as an annoying cacophony, but relaxing into the aural landscape eventually resulted in a state of wondering meditation.

In the second half of the evening, audience members were able to concentrate fully on artist Francisco López’ soundscape, since he distributed blindfolds, explaining to the audience that “without seeing, you hear better.”

“In the Garden of Sonic Delights” is appropriate for all ages. It is open Thursday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is $10.00. Children under 12 are free. Admission includes all-day access to the Caramoor grounds for the exhibition, picnics and walks.

On Sunday, July 20, there will be a daylong celebration with two additional sound art works (“Rainforest IV” by David Tudor and “Sisyphus 2.0” by the Nerve Tank), lectures, demonstrations, a panel discussion and concert.

Only one face in the mirror

Thank goodness for the non-profit Broadway theater, specifically the Roundabout Theatre, currently producing the musical Violet, which has had an off-Broadway history, but might be a tough sell to a commercial Broadway producer.

"See, it's about a girl with a terrible facial scar caused by an accident with an axe when she was a kid. So she journeys by bus from South Carolina to Oklahoma to see a faith healer and along the way, she hooks up with two soldiers, one black and one white. Oh, and it's set in 1964." Not exactly Aladdin.

However, it's one of the most compelling shows running today near the lights of Times Square and cast an emotional spell over this theatergoer, not least because it personally hit home.

As Violet, Sutton Foster plays the role without special makeup, her hair long and lanky. Dressed in a shapeless long dress and baggy sweater, Foster suggests the damage the scar has done by her body's attitude, which sometimes slumps with the hopelessness of a woman who never feels attractive, and her manner - wary, straightforward and never flirtatious.

Based on the story "The Ugliest Pilgrim" by Doris Betts, Jeanine Tesori's music and Brian Crawley's book and lyrics premiered in 1997 at Playwrights Horizons. I'd be willing to bet that its final arrival on Broadway is in no small measure due to the presence of Foster, who is usually seen tapping and singing up a storm in such musical comedies as The Drowsy Chaperone and Anything Goes.

Here, Foster inhabits a woman as real and full as any character by O'Neill or Williams -- and her bright mezzo soprano easily navigates Tesori's wide range of American musical styles, from blues to country, gospel to bluegrass.

Sutton Foster as Violet

I've seldom seen a cast where the principal players are so strong, they could each be the stars of the show.The story alternates between the present and Violet's backwoods upbringing with her dad, a man faced with a parent’s terrible realization that he tried strenuously hard to protect his daughter but grievously injured her. The role is intensely played by Alexander Gemignani. Joshua Henry brings his incandescent presence to Flick, one of the soldiers, although his belting power on his big number, "Let It Sing," momentarily overwhelms the show.

Colin Donnell as the other solider, Monty, nails his slick, cheerful nature and develops it into authentic feeling for Violet. The show never plays the Southern environment for cheap laughs and as the faith healer, Ben Davis never slides into caricature. What a delightful surprise to find Annie Golden (whom I interviewed in the 1970s when she led a rock band named the Shirts) creating gem-like moments as an Old Lady (hey, she's only 63) and Hotel Hooker. As Young Violet, Emerson Steele reminded me of another sensitive, wide-eyed child, Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Right, Sutton Foster and Annie Golden

Director Leigh Silverman gracefully moves the characters through the chapters of their lives, often placing Violet center stage. Living with a face that causes such reactions as “maybe you’d like to have a booth” from a diner manager and stares from a bus driver, Violet comes to realize that the miracle she seeks will have to come from within her.

She is also made aware that she's not the only person who is being judged on appearance, as Flick navigates life as a black man in the South.    

We all have to decide how we will face the world but some have less choice than others. As a quick glance to the right of this blog post will show, the blogger maintains an interesting hair-free style, in this case due to the autoimmune condition (a word preferred to "disease") alopecia areata.

There are stares, thoughtless remarks ("Do you own a wig?"), unsolicited offers of prayer, inquiries about how the chemotherapy is going (it's not cancer), occasional creepy approaches ("I want to touch your head") and never a day when one is unaware of it.

Because the cause is yet unknown and there is no cure or viable treatment, people with alopecia try faith healing, aromatherapy, "stress reduction" -- all the things that rush in where science does not tread.

In the end, there's only one face in the mirror (one song is called "Look at Me") and you just have to go to the well (another - "Water in the Well") time and again, seeking the balance between looking out and looking in, judging how much of your authentic self lies on the outside.

A "gentleman's" musical to die for

Take a cup of Gilbert & Sullivan, sprinkle with a generous helping of Sweeney Todd, stir in a pound of Edwardian music hall and decorate with the words "farce" and "melodrama" -- and you'll have the ingenious musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. Our trip to the Walter Kerr Theater on Broadway was prompted a couple of nights ago by a special 60th birthday celebration.

The show is something of a sleeper hit this season. Bumping along since its November opening with fine reviews and medium box office, it was overshadowed by flashier shows with big stars (Denzel Washington in A Raisin in the Sun, for instance). Then Gentleman's Guide grabbed 10 Tony nominations including best musical, edging out such contenders as Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway, If/Then and The Bridges of Madison County. 

Composer Steven Lutvak and book writer Robert L. Freedman (they're also both credited with lyrics) have taken the obscure 1907 novel Israel Rank: the Autobiography of a Criminal, by Roy Horniman (also the basis for the Alec Guinness movie Kind Hearts and Coronets), and created a gleeful caper through the mind of a serial killer.

Unlike Sweeney Todd, the victims are dispatched with such comic dispatch that laughter replaces squeamishness.

The killer in question is an attractive young man named Monty Navarro (Bryce Pinkham) who discovers that he is a member of the aristocratic D'Ysquith (pronounced die'-squith) family and stands to inherit a title and castle, if only eight relatives pop off first.

Monty observes an early victim, the Rev. Lord Ezekial D'Ysquith.

Eager to secure the love of his social-climbing lady, Sibella (Lisa O'Hare), and outraged by the injustice done his late mother, a D'Ysquith disinherited for marrying "a Castilian," Monty begins hunting heirs.

He discovers they all represent varying examples of the fatuous, idiotic and possibly inbred British aristocracy -- and they are all played by a walking actor's textbook named Jefferson Mays, who won a Tony award in 2004 for playing 30+ characters in the play I Am My Own Wife.

Further complications include a sweet distant relative, Phoebe D'Ysquith (Lauren Worsham) who is not in the line of succession, thank goodness, and becomes Monty's fiancée. Special mention also has to go to Jane Carr, who plays Miss Shingle, one of those middle-aged busybodies who kicks off the action by revealing the family secret to the hero and ends it when it becomes apparent she has a secret, too.

The framing device has Monty sitting in jail writing his memoirs, having been accused of one of the murders. Cleverly, the action takes place on a red-curtained music-hall stage within the stage. Director Darko Tresnjak (making his Broadway debut) and choreographer Peggy Hickey maintain an arch style, a rapid tempo perfect for the material, stylized movement and physical comedy.

Among the family members played by Mays are the bucktoothed Rev. Lord Ezekial D'Ysquith (and those of us of an Episcopal/Anglican bent will recognize with slight chagrin the tedious clergyman pointing out the historical characteristics of the steeple), the kindly top-hatted Lord Asquith D'Ysquith, Sr., the hearty world do-gooder Lady Hyacinth D'Ysquith ("We'll find ourselves some lepers in the Punjab") and obtuse Lord Adalbert D'Ysquith, forever riding to hounds.

Jefferson Mays as Lord Adalbert D'Ysquith.

The latter, sporting red hunting jacket, riding crop and fox pelt, delivers one of the songs that could be pure Gilbert & Sullivan: "I Don't Understand the Poor."

"I don't understand the poor.
And they're constantly turning out more.
Every festering slum in Christendom
Is disgorging its young by the score."

One of the joys of Gentleman's Guide is hearing possibly the wittiest lyrics on Broadway set to sprightly melodies (I've still got "I've Decided to Marry You" in my head, as sung by Phoebe, Sibella and Monty).

O'Hare and Worsham's rivalry is worthy of Cecily and Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest, and their lovely soprano voices deliver the songs in pure brittle Victorian style.

In this gloriously giddy show, murder most foul has never been more fun.

*    *    *     *

Now consider the bassoon ...

A lovely measure of the evening's joy was provided by our friend Tom Sefcovic, who plays bassoon in the show's pit orchestra and who kindly gave us a backstage tour after the show.

"I've never actually seen the show," Tom said as we peered into his subterranean domain between the first row of seats and the stage. Here, the musicians are nearly hidden by a passerelle, a stage extension that covers the pit but has a couple of large openings that allow the music to be heard.

Cozying up to a large prop
 with Tom Sefcovic, who plays
 bassoon in the show

A large portion of my 60 years had passed before I was even aware of the bassoon in any significant way apart from being an audience member at a symphony concert. As a player, piano's my voice. But in the last couple of years, some wrinkle occurred in the universe and I've made the acquaintance of at least three bassoonists and begun to appreciate this shy member of the orchestra.

At first, I really had to listen to distinguish its sweet, low tones, so often bullied by the brass, other woodwinds and the always-assertive string sections. Then, of course, I recognized it as "that sound" I'd heard in solos from Scheherazade to Bolero to Peter and the Wolf.  

However, at Gentleman's Guide, with a 13-piece orchestra, I picked out Tom's playing more clearly. The instrument's four-octave range allowed it to punctuate comic moments with deep belchy outbursts. Higher notes often delightfully accented the comedic action and created such effects as the exotic sounds associated with scenes in Egypt or India.

And a little Web support to ... Tom also plays in the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. Another bassoonist friend, Mary Olsson, plays in St. Thomas Orchestra. And another website, possibly containing more than you'd ever want to know about the bassoon, but written by someone with an infectious passion for the instrument, is this one by bassoonist, repair mechanic and master craftsman Nicholas Evans: http://evansbassoon.com/.