Reel Critics

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Reel Critics column features movie critiques written

by community members serving on our panel.

Before memories were captured in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats,” before

wind came sweeping down the plains in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s

“Oklahoma!” there was the writing and composing duo of Gilbert and

Sullivan.

“Topsy-Turvy,” written and directed by Mike Leigh, recounts the period in

Gilbert and Sullivan’s collaborative endeavors when at the pinnacle of

success they come to a creative impasse.

Since 1871, William Schwenk Gilbert (Jim Broadbent), as lyricist, and

Arthur Seymour Sullivan (Allan Corduner), as composer, have entertained

the masses at the Savoy Theatre in London with their comedic operatic

works such as “H.M.S. Pinafore” and “The Pirates of Penzance.”

But after 15 years, the impetuous and free-spirited Sullivan is restless.

Feeling that his compositions have become repetitive and trite along with

possessing an aching desire to compose a grand opera, Sullivan refuses to

collaborate when Gilbert presents his latest work, once again laced with

similar characters and redundant themes. Instead, Sullivan emphasizes his

need for a story containing tender human and dramatic interest.

After several rewrites, Gilbert balks at that request. Feeling as if he’s

always second fiddle, the stuffy, overly proper Gilbert insists that he

cannot oblige. And though under contract with the Savoy Theatre, we fear

the end of their partnership.

Then, Gilbert’s wife, Lucy “Kitty” Gilbert (Lesley Manville), coaxes him

from his self-pity to observe a touring Japanese cultural exhibit.

Exposure to a different culture becomes an inspiration, and he resolves

to write another opera, this one set in Japan, called “The Mikado.”

Gilbert and Sullivan reunite, and we are lucky to witness history through

a backstage theater chronicle.

The subject might not interest everyone unless one of your New Year’s

resolutions was to learn more about the history of musical theater or to

study the syntax and semantics of the English language during the

Victorian era.

“Topsy-Turvy,” wonderfully imbibed with characteristically British dry

wit, gives us a glimpse into another time. It is an intimate look at two

creative geniuses with distinctly different lifestyles and personalities,

along with the influential people and times surrounding them.

With Leigh’s dedication to authenticity, we are no longer on the

periphery of a period piece but transported into the reality of Victorian

England. Ironically, the very aspect that makes “Topsy-Turvy” an

exceptional film could create audience indifference: authentic behavior

and expressions shaped by etiquette and decorum of the time.

Concentration is needed as the characters dryly extol their plight over

the most trivial situation, and they do so with the most mellifluous

speech of the English language.

Think you haven’t seen any of Gilbert and Sullivan’s works? You may be

surprised. Gilbert and Sullivan’s popularity is long-lived. In 1981’s

Academy Award-winning “Chariots of Fire,” Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross),

while attending a production of “The Mikado,” falls in love with the

actress playing Yum-Yum, one of the three little maids from school.

Performances that patrons flocked to in the 1880s can still be seen today

in community theaters.

If history should repeat itself, will current musicals soon be performed

at community theaters? Will we see “Cats” at the Costa Mesa Civic

Playhouse? Or will we be able to see that nautical favorite, “Titanic,”

at the Newport Theatre Arts Center?

Maybe not. But wouldn’t Gilbert and Sullivan be in awe at their success?

Well, at least the precarious Gilbert would. Sullivan would have reveled

in it.

JULIE LOWRANCE, 40, is a Costa Mesa resident who works at a Newport Beach

overnight aircraft advertising agency.