Blue Hill Troupe Presents THE GONDOLIERS, Opens 4/16

Blue Hill Troupe, Ltd. <http://www.bht.org>, the only musical theater group in New York City to donate its net proceeds to charity, continues its travel-themed 86th season with Gilbert & Sullivan's Venetian romance, The Gondoliers. The production, opening Friday, follows on the heels of the group's well-received Brigadoon last fall.

The Gondoliers will play for eight performances, April 16-24, 2010, at Teatro Heckscher of El Museo del Barrio (1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street):
April 16, 21, 22, 23, 24 at 8:00 pm
April 17, 18 at 3:00 pm
April 24 at 2:00 pm

Tickets are available online now at or by calling 866-811-4111 and range in price from $25-$65. Payment in excess of $20 per ticket is tax deductible to the extent provided by law.

Proceeds from The Gondoliers will benefit The New York Foundling funding Mott Haven Academy's Arts and Music Program, which enables its students to participate regularly in dance, music, visual arts, and theater.

The Gondoliers is a tale of two humble gondoliers and the flower girls they love. Before they can embark on married life, the Grand Inquisitor reveals that one of them is the king of faraway Barataria, but nobody knows which. Matters are further complicated when they learn that whichever one is king was married as an infant to an impoverished Spanish princess. She, of course, secretly loves another. How will this romantic and political muddle be solved? With witty dialogue, bursts of colorful dancing, and some of the most joyous music ever written.

The Gondoliers is directed by Gary Slavin, recently represented Off Broadway by Show Choir! - The Musical and the hit political revue Bush is Bad. Musical direction is by Zachary Schwartzman, an associate conductor with New York City Opera and Glimmerglass Opera.

Since 1924, the Blue Hill Troupe has produced a large-scale Gilbert & Sullivan operetta every spring, with lavish production values and full orchestra. Each year, the net proceeds benefit a different New York City charity, with the impressive total donated topping $3 million. Prior charities include Inwood House (2009), Covenant House New York (2008), New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (2007) and The Doe Fund (2006).

The all-volunteer Blue Hill Troupe has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and with The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. For fifteen years, they have presented a concert in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Concerts and Lectures series.

Over its 86-year history, the Blue Hill Troupe has produced the entire Gilbert & Sullivan canon, including Thespis, the pair's first collaboration, to which Sullivan's score has been lost. In June 2008, the Blue Hill Troupe presented a concert version of Thespis, with a new score by Grammy Award-winning composer and record producer Thomas Z. Shepard. In 2005, the Blue Hill Troupe was honored with three awards at the 12th Annual International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton, UK, for their innovative production of the G&S rarity, The Grand Duke.