Much to my chagrin, I discovered this morning that I have not written a season preview article for the Lamplighters Music Theatre for over half a decade. This may have been due to the fact that their seasons usually begin in August, making for a somewhat unconventional season cycle. As usual, there will be four events in San Francisco, one for the annual Gala and the other three for full-length fully-staged productions. This coming season (the 72nd) each of those productions will take place in a different San Francisco venue. Specifics are as follows:
Poster design for The Pirates of Penzance (from the Lamplighters home page)
The season will begin with one of the most popular collaborations of composer Arthur Sullivan and librettist W. S. Gilbert, The Pirates of Penzance. What many readers may not know is that this comic opera was given its premiere performance in New York City on December 31, 1879. The venue was the Fifth Avenue Theatre, which was located on Broadway but not in what is now the Times Square district. Rather, it was at the corner of West 28th Street, and it was demolished in 1939. Pirates did not debut in London until the following year on April 3, 1880. The Lamplighters production will be directed by Michael Mohammed, and the conductor will be Resident Music Director Brett Strader.
This production will be given two matinee performances at 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 17, and Sunday, August 18. The venue will be the Blue Shield of California Theater at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which is located at 700 Howard Street on the northwest corner of Third Street. Premium Orchestra tickets are $88, those in Center Terrace and the remainder of the Orchestra are $78, and those in the Side Terrace and Boxes are $73. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through City Box Office event pages. Each performance has a separate Web page, which may be reached through the hyperlinks attached to the above dates. As of this writing, there appears to be no information about subscription rates.
The second event of the season will be the Champagne Gala. This will be the 60th gala celebration, and it will serve as a tribute to former Lamplighters Music Director Baker Peeples. It will begin at 3 p.m. on Sunday, October 27, taking place in the Taube Atrium Theater, which is on the top floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The performance portion of the occasion will, once again, feature trademark parodies based on the original lyrics that Gilbert wrote for Sullivan. There will also be both a silent auction and a more vociferous one for the annual Fund-A-Need campaign. City Box Office has created a single Web page with a Performance Only option and one for the entire event.
The third offering will be a musical version of George Bernard Shaw’s play Candida. The title character is the wife of a popular and upright Anglican minister, who must contend with a young poet trying to woo Candida away from him. Austin Pendleton provided the book for the staged version, entitled A Minister’s Wife; and Jan Levy Tranen wrote the lyrics for composer Joshua Schmidt. This production will be given three performances in the Taube Atrium Theatre. There will be two matinee performances at 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 15, and Sunday, February 16, along with an evening performance at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 15. General admission will be $76 with a $71 rate for seniors (age 62 or older), and $31 for children aged eighteen or younger and students aged 25 and under.
The final production will be the first two-act operetta created by Gilbert and Sullivan. The Sorcerer will be given a staging that advances the time from the Victorian era of its creators to 1920, which was a time in which fascination with the occult was particularly popular. As might be guessed, the plot revolves around a love potion; and Lamplighters has a tendency to interject references to other musical themes associated with that plot. (Lovers of German opera should be on the alert!) This production will be given three performances at the Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center. Opening night will be on Friday, May 16, at 7:30 p.m. This will be followed by the usual two matinee performances at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, and Sunday, May 18.
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