The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company has been doing their very particular brand of theater in the Twin Cities for quite a while now (since 1979) but up until last weekend it had been a sort of unchecked box on my theater dance card (even though I have an actor friend who regularly signs on to be part of GSVLOC’s very impressively sized chorus). But I got an invitation out of the blue through the contact page of my still very much in progress new website to come and see their latest production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Yeomen of the Guard, or The Merryman and His Maid” and thought, “What the heck, let’s give it a try.”
“It is easier to die well than to live well. I have tried both.”
This isn’t the first time the G&S Very Light Opera company has tackled “The Yeomen of the Guard.” Since Gilbert & Sullivan’s repertoire is a little over a dozen operettas in total, the company has been able to rotate through all the titles a few times over across the decades. “Yeomen” has been produced three times, but the last outing was over a dozen years ago. And so, it’s back. Each show is a major undertaking and GSVLOC doesn’t skimp on the scale of things.
“I might have married her with my eyes open.”:
Perhaps the most impressive thing about “The Yeomen of the Guard” is the size of the production itself. There’s ten named characters just for starters, plus another half dozen key characters known for their vocation rather than their name (a confessor, an executioner known as The Headsman, First and Second Yeoman, etc.), then a chorus of 15 singing citizens, plus of a ten man chorus of brightly uniformed Yeomen of the Guard (shout-out to costume designer/wardrobe supervisor Bronson Talcott, they must be quite exhausted with so many period costumes to keep track of). And that’s just the people you can see. There’s a whole hidden live orchestra tucked backstage, conducted by music director Randal A. Buikema (Now, they may rotate week to week depending on people’s availability or something, but they’re all listed in the program of course and there’s nearly 60 of them in all so… whether they’re all there at once or take turns, that’s a LOT of musicians.)
“Do they not say that a live ass is better than a dead lion?”
Now, what exactly are all these people in service of? The Gilbert & Sullivan operettas (lighter, more comedic or satirical fare than your standard opera, with spoken as well as sung dialogue, sort of the middle ground between classical opera and American musical theater) are always full of romance and plot twists (almost giddily convoluted at times) and you can count on a happy ending for (almost) everybody when they’re done. “The Yeomen of the Guard, or the Merryman and His Maid” is no different (though perhaps slightly less well-known than their oft-produced titles like “The Pirates of Penzance” or “H.M.S. Pinafore” or even “The Mikado” - all of which have crossed my path in various forms over the years).
“There are one or two rules that all traveling fools must observe.”
This play is set on the grounds of the Tower of London in the time of King Henry VIII, which if you know any British history at all, you know that setting probably doesn’t bode well for the cast of characters (my knowledge of the time period is slim, but even I wondered, “How are we going to get a romantic musical comedy out of this?”) Fear not, dramatist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan have plenty of mischief up their sleeves.
“Men may bleed and men may burn.”
Colonel Fairfax (Graham Remple) has been framed by a relative for the crime of sorcery (gasp) and for this he has been sentenced to death (hence the Tower of London setting). In order to screw this disloyal relative out of any potential inheritance, Fairax enlists the help of Sir Richard Cholmondeley (Eric Sorun) to quick find him a woman to marry so when his head gets chopped off, his newly minted widow will be very rich instead. The woman in question is the Maid of the subtitle, Elsie Maynard (Mary Kettlewell), a traveling singer who just happens to be passing through town at the time with her artistic partner, the Merryman of the subtitle, a traveling jester named Jack Point (Sam Vinitsky). A quickie marriage to a doomed man, who she doesn’t even see during their offstage ceremony, certainly seems like a quicker way to riches than being a touring artist in the 1500s.
“He was to have died but he did not die - the scandal!”
But wait, there’s another plot afoot! Fairfax, in his life of military battles, has saved his share of lives, one of them being that of Sergeant Meryll (Waldyn Benbenek), one of the titular Yeomen of the Guard, in this case guarding the Tower of London and all its prisoners. With the help of his daughter Phoebe (Charlotte Smith), they steal the keys off the unsuspecting head jailer Wilfred Shadbolt (Trevor Woggon). Meryll also gets his son Leonard (Andrew Peterson) to lay low for a while out of town, and after they spring Fairfax from his cell, he “shaves off” his charming but incredibly fake beard and pretends to be Meryll’s son Leonard instead, taking up a new job with, you guessed it, the Yeomen of the Guard, following in his fake dad’s footsteps, keeping watch over the prison cells from which he just escaped.
“I didn’t become an assistant tormentor because I like tormenting.”
Will Fairfax blow his own cover by getting a little too close to his “sister” Phoebe? What will Elsie do now that she’s not the rich widow she expected to be? Will the unlikely alliance between Shadbolt, who has feelings for Phoebe, and Point, who yearns for his now inconveniently married costar Elsie, manage to land them the women they pine for, or will it just further complicate matters? There’s a lot of singing, dancing and comedy going on before everything shakes out and people get their heart’s desire (well, most people anyway - when this romantic game of musical chairs reaches its end, someone will inevitably be left standing alone).
“When a jester goes a-wooing and he wishes he was dead.”
Stage director Gary Briggle and music director Buikema ably manage the impressive task of wrangling over 40 people onstage (plus dozens of musicians offstage) through the wild sprint of all that music and a thicket of clever lyrics. Like most Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, the story is peppered with a combination of large cast musical numbers as well as solos, duets, trios and quartets full of gorgeous harmonies that show off all these powerful, talented voices in the cast to great effect. We also get a full-on overture that allows the orchestra to take the spotlight, while characters come and go across the expanse of Michael Hoover’s spectacular set, and Carl Schoenborn’s lights get to play across the space as the overture moves from one melody to the next.
“The journey many gallant hearts have taken.”
Given the sprawling scope of the production, it was often little touches that made me realize just how much the people care when putting this show together. For instance, the pre-show announcement to turn off your cell phones? They’ve got a whole comedic Gilbert & Sullivan-esque mini-song (lyrics from citizen chorus member Holly Windle) performed by the black clad executioner (Mike Tober) ax in hand, backed up by a couple of the Yeomen of the Guard with the subtext of “don’t make me come out there” if someone forgets to turn off their ringer. Also the opening moments of music in the play before the first song really kicks in, have this swirling quality to them, so someone thought, “Hey, let’s get these two ladies a spinning wheel and have the spinning match to the music” so props designer Christine Keller went out and found a functional spinning wheel (?!) for the purpose of that moment. Doesn’t have a larger impact on the plot of the play, but the attention to detail is admirable. And kudos to the stage management team of Kevin Lindee and assistants Taryn Shucha and Brianna Sullivan (no relation?) - it’s a mighty feat to keep the many moving parts of this thing going and the whole production flows remarkably well.
“Phoebe”
“Who should she be?”
“Your sister.”
If you need a light-hearted distraction for a couple of hours in these very strange days we’re all living through, “The Yeomen of the Guard” might be just the escape you need.
The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company’s production of “The Yeoman of the Guard” runs now through Sunday, March 29, 2026 at the Conn Theater at Plymouth Congregational Church (1900 Nicollet Avenue South, in Minneapolis). The show runs Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30pm with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm. (Ticket availability is already limited for one of those matinees so get your reservations in soon if you’re interested.) Tickets can be purchased through their website: gsvloc.org
4 Stars - Highly Recommended
[photo (left to right): Jack Point (kneeling, Sam Vinitsky), Phoebe (Charlotte Smith), Elsie (Mary Kettlewell) and Fairfax (Graham Remple) in the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company’s production of “The Yeomen of the Guard” - photography by Stephen Hage]