Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride

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J. Miner Photography

Dennis Yadon, Cat Richmond and Mike Brady in "Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride."

Dennis Yadon, Cat Richmond and Mike Brady in "Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride," Madison Savoyards, 2024.

8/2-11, Bartell Theatre, at 7:30 pm Friday-Saturday and 3 pm Sunday; free kids' pre-show activities 1 pm, 8/4. $36 ($21 students).

media release: By Arthur Sullivan & W.S. Gilbert

Director J. Michael Bruno; music director Christopher Ramaekers.

Madison Savoyards presents Patience, an operatic ode to the silliness of fads, fashion, and Art for Art’s sake, imbued with the brilliant music of Arthur Sullivan and biting wit of W.S. Gilbert. Live musicians, singers and dancers take the stage of the Bartell Theatre in downtown Madison August 2 through 12 to perform this rarely produced, poetic and aesthetic titillating tale.

In Patience, Madison Savoyards continues presenting the core of the Gilbert & Sullivan corpus, while also finding content that speaks to audiences today. A show that invokes themes of the vain, pretentious, and superficial, as well as of simplicity and love, MSL’s Patience will shed an entertaining and ‘new light’ on our contemporary world. Satire can be a rapier, cutting into the pretenses of society — in the 20th century sometimes a weapon in the class struggle. That may be a loaded concept for the delightfully silly confections of G&S opera, but the operas did (and do!) offer a concerted pushback against the self-important authority figures who were their constant targets. A healthy skepticism laced with broad humor can go a long way toward keeping public officials honest and above-board. Typical of a G&S work, hilarity, contradictions and topsy-turvy reversals ensue, all set to charming melodies, the requisite patter songs, duets and choruses.

Performed on the Drury Stage

Principals

Colonel Calverley - Bradley J. Carter

Major Murgatroyd - Jeremy Dyer

Duke of Dunstable - Roland Beach

Reginald Bunthorne - Dennis Yadon

Archibald Grosvenor - Mike Brady

Lady Angela - Colleen Murphy

Lady Saphir - Jesse Harrison

Lady Ella - Stephanie Frank

Lady Jane - Brendin Larson

Patience - Cat Richmond

Ensemble

Angela Joy Bleke, Olivia Boyd, Winner Ekule, Elizabeth Gokey, Rosalia Johnson, Matthew Jordan, Sarah Kendall, Alexxis McDade, Phil Saganski, Fred Younger, Pamela Ziemlewicz