GILBERT & SULLIVAN GOOD GRIEF!

I saw "Gilbert & Sullivan In Briefs" at Queens Theatre (In the Park) in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park.  The show which had been running since June 21st, is going off to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  For me the show was just another disappointment in the "Best Season Ever" that Queens Theatre has been marketing.

This show was an attempt to (I think) sing about 4 minutes of each of Gilbert & Sullivan's operettas.  The beginning of the show wasted time with the pianist attempting a joke by measuring the distance between the piano and his seat.  There was much too much insignificant dialogue in between many of the group of songs and except for H.M.S Pinafore, The Mikado, and Pirates of Penzance, you had to be an historic admirer of the composers.

Oh, yeah....it ran 75 minutes with no intermission and when they joked about an intermission I think the audience was disappointed in not being able to have the chance to exit. 

The acting was okay.  Singing was fair.  What this is all about is the new Executive Director Ray Cullom, who has been using the theatre to hopefully further his career in writing and directing.  He thinks he's great.  Perhaps the audience, composed of mostly seniors, may have enjoyed the season as a day or evening out.  You can get an advanced 4 shows for $100 if you choose.  That's one way to get the people.

What about marketing?  How is it that the house wasn't full for performers like Melissa Manchester and Paula Poundstone?

I'm getting emails asking me to review the shows and unless I give it a rave review, it doesn't go on their website.  I keep noticing that there are no reviews on the website.

There are at least a half dozen local newspapers in Queens...I write for one of them.  Here's an interesting tidbit.  One newspaper, the Queens Courier, has voted them the best Theatre in Queens.  I'll bet.  Guess which newspaper gets the ads for their program.