STAGE REVIEW : Comic Opera’s ‘Gondoliers’ Gets By on Charm

A new director, a new name, a new look and a new sound.

If it’s been a while since you’ve seen the San Diego Gilbert & Sullivan Company--now renamed the San Diego Comic Opera Company--you may be taken aback by its staging of “The Gondoliers.” Pleasantly.

The period costumes have been abandoned for brightly colored spandex bicycle suits and bikinis in a Venice setting--California rather than Italy. Skateboards and roller skates abound. References to Leona Helmsley, the National Enquirer and Ronny and Nancy update some of the songs.

Despite publicity by the new director, Leon Natker, promising that the contemporary setting would bring back “the bite” of Gilbert’s original parody of governmental systems run amok, the production doesn’t really do much with the new setting besides have fun with it.

But the fun is infectious. And the music, at least, is the best this reviewer ever remembers hearing in a San Diego Gilbert & Sullivan production; not only are the principals strong, but so are the supporting singers and chorus.

“The Gondoliers” was W. S. Gilbert’s and Arthur Sullivan’s 12th and last successful collaboration. (The two split after a quarrel about the cost of a new carpet for the foyer of the Savoy Theatre.)

The play is ostensibly about a mythical kingdom called Barataria, in which a king once took the idea of republican democracy to such an extreme that everyone became absolutely equal--from the king to his servant--which meant that nothing much ever got done.

The king is long gone at the start of the play, but the Duke of Plaza-Toro hopes to restore a monarchy by uniting his daughter, Casilda, with the king’s son.

The plot is complicated by the duke’s belief that the young man, missing at the outset of the play, is one of two recently married gondoliers from Venice--Giuseppe and Marco, whom he installs as co-kings until he can determine the proper groom for his daughter.

Gilbert’s parody focuses on the excesses of the monarchy versus the excesses of “too much” equality. But the reaction to both scenarios in this production is so benign, and the shadow of the new aristocracy so comically non-threatening, that the issues are thrown totally overboard.

Instead the show slides by, pleasantly, on charm, much like the sweet but none too brilliant gondoliers, excellently sung by Jeffrey Rockwell as Giuseppe and Leon Natker as Marco.

Like the gondoliers, all the characters are funny without being well defined. Leann Sandel provides an exquisite voice as Casilda, gamely going along with whatever mood she is being asked to play from scene to scene. Suzanne Keiper and Stephanie Buckley are delightful as the wives. Bryan Charles-Feldman is amusing as the duke, and Kellie Evans-O’Connor cuts loose in “On the Day When I Was Wedded” as the duchess and classic politician’s wife.

One sour note in character conception: Equating the Papal Nuncio with a Mafia don seems to be going after the same brand of unfortunate humor that Billy Crystal trotted out at the Academy Awards ceremony when he quipped that an Italian-owned MGM lion would not roar, but rather take the Fifth Amendment. Still, Richard Wright brings a strong, dynamic presence to the role.

The costumes by Jeanne Reith reflect the fuzziness in focus. The Southern California clothes make sense in the first act when we are in Venice. As the company moves to Barataria, the costumes look like green and pink tropical plants that don’t relate to any particular period or climate at all.

Still, the costuming, while schizophrenic, is as pleasing as the music conducted by Hollace Koman. The company has started off its new identity by showing that it has verve, talent and energy. What it still needs, badly, is focus. It still needs a voice strong enough to take a theme and carry it through.

“THE GONDOLIERS”

By W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Directed by Leon Natker. Conducted by Hollace Koman. Sets by J. Sherwood Montgomery. Costumes by Jeanne Reith. Lighting by Ron Vodicka. With Jeffrey Rockwell, Leann Sandel, Leon Natker, Stephanie Buckley, Suzanne Keiper, Kellie Evans-O’Connnor, Layla Bryant, Peter Morse, Sandra Shearer, Brian Christopher Mae, Vincent Martin, Iris Brito, Bryan Charles Feldman, Richard Geiler, Richard Wright, Daniel Eaton, Larry DeLong and Susan Abernethy. At 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday. Tickets are $10-16. At the Casa del Prado Theatre, Balboa Park. 231-5714.