This year, Saint Michael’s Episcopal School’s annual operetta is the extremely rare Thespis, or the Gods Grown Old. This was the first joint effort of G&S, opening in London on December 23, 1871 as a Christmas special at the Gaiety Theater, but ran for 63 performances as a huge hit. Soon afterwards, however, an accidental fire destroyed the music (but not the words) of Thespis, though many of the tunes were preserved in excerpts or were reused in some of the thirteen more operettas that followed.
The middle- and upper-school students (and select teachers and alumni) will perform a version of this popular romp that was recently reconstructed in Australia and heard for the first time in North America in from February 20-22, right here in Bryan, Texas. Nationally known G&S expert Ralph (“Rafe”) C. MacPhail, Jr., Artistic Director of the Austin Gilbert & Sullivan Society and Professor Emeritus of Theater at Bridgewater College in Virginia, will speak about all this and more at the Gala performance Thursday evening, February 20th.
(Performing the Baker/Henty restoration.)