The past is a fairy country...

‘Iolanthe’

Oxford University Gilbert and Sullivan Society

May 1973

My last post – a review of ENO’s recent ‘Iolanthe’ – stirred some long dormant memories. 1973 will seem like ancient history to a lot of you, but to me one week in May of that year is as fresh as paint. I am twenty, an undergraduate of the university and I am singing Earl Mountararat in the Oxford University Gilbert and Sullivan production of ‘Iolanthe’ at the Oxford Playhouse.

A few random reminiscences present themselves. The Cast has some members now rather better known than they were then. Jane Glover, now an eminent conductor and academic author is Queen of the Fairies, Ron Corp, eminent conductor and composer is Earl Tolloller, Jeremy White, long serving principal at the ROH Covent Garden is Private Willis, and Hugh Sykes (aka Jack Lyndhurst in the programme- he didn’t want his tutors to know he was neglecting his studies) is a BBC Radio News presenter and reporter. Less well-known, but vivid in memory, are George Hibbert as Strephon: the poshest person I’d ever met, one of only two people ever to call me ‘Pauly’, and a brilliant comic actor. Mary Gaebler as Celia, an American force of nature, a fine singing actress, Marie-Odile Dalton (Mod) as Leila, who later married Hugh Sykes and died far too young, and in the chorus, Verity Curry, a lovely singer, later to sing Lady Jane in 'Patience' accompanying herself on the 'cello, and my dear friend Neal Thornton, the only person from this production I still see, who sang Grosvenor in that same production of 'Patience'.

Above all, there is our director Mel Smith. This of course is long before he found TV fame in’Not the Nine o’Clock News’, ‘Alas Smith and Jones’ and other arenas, but it is absolutely not with the benefit of hindsight that I say now that I knew then I was being directed by a genius.

And yes – the performances were excellent! I still have a yellowing review from ‘The Guardian’ – I am not mentioned, but I just know the writer thought I was superb…

Two other random asides. What was known as the Lady Falkender scandal was a hot topic of the day (it was rumoured the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson had ennobled her because he had had an affair with her when she was his secretary). Thus it was that my otherwise innocuous line ‘That’s what comes of having women interfering in politics’ got a huge laugh every night of the run – this certainly had nothing to do with my delivery… Final memory: the day before the Dress Rehearsal I got food poisoning (dodgy Chinese meal) and was still feeling very rough for the Dress. A picture taken of me looking like the proverbial death warmed up was displayed outside the theatre on the first night and for subsequent performances.

If any member of cast or chorus reads this, I hope your recollections of that other country which is our vanished youth are as magical as mine have been…