The Revenge of Bits & Pieces

Tynemouth Gilbert and Sullivan Society are proud to present:

The Revenge

of

Bits & Pieces

This was the fifth in our run of September mini-shows, which are intended to highlight the more obscure and forgotten parts of the world of the Savoy Operas. This year, we performed three short operettas:

Bob

by Cunningham Bridgeman & Francois Cellier with new music by Colin M Johnson

Bob was first performed at His Majesty’s Theatre, Walsall, on 8 April 1903. It never played at the Savoy, but toured with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company as a curtain raiser to H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and Iolanthe

Francois Cellier’s original score for Bob is long since lost, and this production uses new music composed by Colin M Johnson. We are very grateful for his permission to use his score

Cast

M. Sarsenet, a dress shop proprietor - John Boothroyd

Minnie Hill, his milliner - Zoe Hull

Robert Berkeley, a young gentleman - Steven Aitchison

Lady Mabel Margravine, his fiancée - Julia Straw

The scene is M. Sarsenet’s dress shop. His milliner, Minnie, is reminiscing over the wonderful time she had the previous night at the ball where she danced all evening with a young man known to her only as Bob. But when young Robert Berkeley and his reluctant fiancée Mabel arrive for a viewing of a dress which Bob has designed, could all of Minnie’s dreams come true?

A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion

A one-act farce written by John Maddison Morton

A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion was first performed in 1849

Cast

Mr Snoozle, a respectable gentleman - Richard Straw

The Intruder, a disreputable gentleman - Rory Oliver

Mr Snoozle is looking forward to a peaceful afternoon. He has sent his female relatives off shopping, and has a comfortable sofa, a muffin and his goldfish to keep him company. But things take a very strange turn when he sees a young gentleman about to commit suicide in his fish pond. After he rescues the man, Snoozle finds things rapidly spiralling out of control as the intruder takes over his house and his life, and even threatens to marry every member of his family. As things become ever more strange, can reality itself survive?

Mr Jericho

by Harry Greenbank and Ernest Ford

Mr Jericho was first performed at the Savoy Theatre, London on 18 March 1893 as a curtain raiser to Arthur Sullivan's Haddon Hall, and later to J.M Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle's Jane Annie from June 1893

Cast

Michael de Vere, Earl of Margate - Andrew Watson

Horace de Vere, his son, Viscount Ramsgate - Phil Hall

Lady Dulcibella Bushe, a respectable lady - Hazel Glynn

Winifred Bushe, her daughter - Liffy Wood

Mr Jericho, a jam manufacturer - Andrew Neale

The Earl of Margate has squandered his money, and so he lives in a cottage and must do his own gardening, while his son Horace is reduced to working as an omnibus driver. Horace is in love with Winifred, Lady Bushe's daughter, one of his regular passengers, but her mother is appalled that Winifred loves a ‘commoner’. When a world famous jam manufacturer, Mr Jericho, shows up looking for a lady friend, he offers to pay Horace's father handsomely for a customer testimonial. But can jam and true love triumph and see Horace and Winifred united?