Savoyaires Present Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. PINAFORE

Amy Uhl's most recent show was the new Broadway musical Amazing Grace, now playing at New York City's Nederlander Theatre. A member of the directing team for that production's Broadway in Chicago and Broadway companies, Uhl now returns to Evanston's Savoyaires - where in 2010 she choreographed The Gondoliers -- to direct Gilbert & Sullivan's ever-popular H.M.S. Pinafore. Active as a freelance Chicago-area and regional director/choreographer, Uhl is associate professor and coordinator of the Musical Theatre Program at Columbia College Chicago.

Returning with Uhl for this production are music director Timothy Semanik, conductor of the Salt Creek Chamber Orchestra and the Bradley University Orchestra, for his eighth consecutive Savoyaires show; Jeff-winning costume designer Tom Kieffer, costumer for the Savoyaires' 2003 H.M.S. Pinafore as well as last year's The Grand Duke, who has designed for such companies as Writers Theater, Peninsula Players, and City Lit; and producer Laima Day, back for her 15th consecutive Savoyaires production. Joining the company for the first time are set designer Jessica Howe, whose credits include productions at Indiana's Theater at the Center and Dunes Summer Theater, and lighting designer Cody Ryan, who has worked in Chicago with the Neofurists, Steep Theatre, and the New Colony.

A hilarious satire of society's perennial obsessions with class divisions and social rank, H.M.S Pinafore is subtitled "The Lass That Loved a Sailor." The lass -- Josephine, daughter of the high-born captain of the H.M.S. Pinafore -- is engaged to marry the first lord of the admiralty but is in love with a lowly sailor on her father's ship. A mysterious peddler woman warns the captain that a change is in store, and eventually everything turns topsy-turvy. The sparkling score includes such favorites as "I'm Called Little Buttercup," "I Am the Captain of the Pinafore," "When I Was a Lad," "Never Mind the Why and Wherefore," "He Is an Englishman," and many more.

Performances will be held at Chute Auditorium (Chute School), 1400 Oakton Street in Evanston, on Friday and Saturday, October 9 - 10, at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, October 11, at 3 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, October 16 - 17, at 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, October 18, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $27/22/17 ($22/17/12 for ages 12 and under) and may be purchased by phone at 847-563-0155, online at www.savoyaires.org/tickets, or by mail from Savoyaires, P.O. Box 126, Evanston, IL 60204.

The Savoyaires are partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.