Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Co Present Reading of 'Pygmalion and Galatea' 10/18

The Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island will present a staged reading of W. S. Gilbert's classic comedy, Pygmalion and Galatea.

The play will be performed Saturday night, October 18, 8:00 pm, at the Ethical Humanist Society, 38 Old Country Road in Garden City.

"Most people think of W.S. Gilbert as the author of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas," director Gayden Wren says, "and of course the operas are his lasting legacy. In his own time, however, he might just as likely have been identified as the author of Pygmalion and Galatea. It was not only his most successful straight play, but actually made more money for him than any of the operas, even The Mikado or H.M.S. Pinafore."

The play is the fourth in an annual series of staged readings that began with The Palace of Truth in 2005, and continued with The Princess in 2006 and Tom Cobb in 2007.

"It's been a wonderfully entertaining way to learn more about Gilbert and his work," says Wren, who conceived the popular series, and has directed all four readings. "After all, his collaboration with Arthur Sullivan encompassed only 14 of the 72 plays which Gilbert had produced. In principle we could continue this series until 2063 before we began repeating. And in his own time Gilbert was as well known as a straight playwright as he was as a librettist."

First produced at the Haymarket Theatre in 1871, only a couple of weeks before Thespis, Gilbert's first collaboration with Sullivan, was presented at the Gaiety, Pygmalion and Galatea is the story of a sculptor, Pygmalion, who specializes in statues of beautiful women - always using his beloved wife, Cynisca, as his model.

However, the statues are even more beautiful than the real woman - a difference that becomes important when the gods deem Pygmalion's greatest work, Galatea, so lovely that they bring the statue to life as a real woman.

Soon Pygmalion is at odds with his wife, who can't help being jealous even of the marble itself, while the innocent Galatea, who knows nothing of human life or society, sows havoc wherever she goes.

"It's hilariously funny," Wren says, "with some biting commentary on social hypocrisy, gender roles, the place of the artist in society and much more. And it's also genuinely moving, building up to an ending which left Victorian audiences profoundly stirred."

As is usual in the staged-reading series, The cast for Pygmalion and Galatea includes many of the company's finest performers. Will Curtis of New York and San Francisco, a veteran of the Off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks and other New York productions, plays Pygmalion, with Cassandra Lems of New Hyde Park as Cynisca. Sara Elliott Holliday of Queens plays Galatea, with Patricia Hulmes of West Babylon as Pygmalion's sister Myrine, and Stephen O'Leary of Lynbrook as her fiancee, the confused soldier Leucippus.

Martin Fuller of Oceanside, a 30-year veteran of the Company, will appear as the pompous art patron Chrysos. Lily Grehan of Centereach as Chrysos' jealous wife Daphne, with New Hyde Parks' Andrew Schwartz and Barry Mastellone of Queens as the slaves Agesimos and Mimos round out the 9-person cast.

"It's a wonderful show," Wren concludes, "and one that deserves to be seen more often than it is. This is a terrific opportunity for anyone who loves Gilbert's operas to get acquainted with another side of the man who most people considered the most important English dramatist of the 19th century."

Tickets for W. S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea are $15, and may be reserved by calling (516) 795-7745 or (631) 567-8264. Tickets may also be purchased with a credit card by visiting www.theatermania.com.

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