About a Century Since: UMGASS tackles The Grand Duke

THEATER & DANCE PREVIEW

The Cast of UMGASS's The Grand Duke

The Cast of The Grand Duke at the Mendelssohn Theater.

UMGASS is back this weekend with the last of Gilbert & Sullivan's 14 operettas: The Grand Duke. Originally set about a hundred years before its 1896 debut, UMGASS has gently updated the setting and costumes to about a hundred years ago, in 1907. 

Directed by David Andrews and starring a cast of UMGASS regulars along with some fresh faces, The Grand Duke features a play-within-a-play (with a clever, unique twist for true G&S Fans) and the wish-fulfillment theme of a theater company bending the aristocracy to their will through the power of their production (with some help from archaic statutes).

Even though the original version was Gilbert & Sullivan's only financial failure, and it almost disappeared from the repertoire for decades, UMGASS has made some excellent cuts to the show (as did Gilbert after opening night) and this Grand Duke is sure to delight all fans of the Savoy Operatic Universe. So, come hither, all you people, and enjoy another delight from the UMGASS crew.


Eli Neiburger is Deputy Director of the Ann Arbor District Library and had no business being cast as Ralph Rackstraw in high school. Love levels all ranks, but it does not level them as much as that.


UMGASS presents The Grand Duke continues December 7, 8, and 9 at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater. Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets or at the door.