New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players' THE SORCERER Begins Tonight Off-Broadway

New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players, America's preeminent professional Gilbert & Sullivan repertory company, begins its exciting 2017-18 Season tonight, September 15 (7:30PM) with a new jewel box production of The Sorcerer, celebrating its 140th anniversary this year. The production will be staged at Off-Broadway's intimate Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater (10 West 64th Street). The strictly limited engagement will play September 15 - 17. Below, BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at James Mills recreating some of the poses from the original 1877 production!

The Sorcerer or, The Vicar's Reduction of Tea. The Vicar's brew inadvertently administers a love potion concocted by a highly respectable and old-established Family Sorcerer to the populace of a quaint English village. This cleverly reduced version of the Gilbert & Sullivan classic features the village's eight colorful characters, plus the notable outsider John Wellington Wells of patter song fame. The intimate setting puts the focus squarely on the personal relationships, witty dialogue, and lush score of the creators as brewed by a cast of nine expert singing actors and one accomplished pianist.

The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S.Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. Their third collaboration, the plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, "An Elixir of Love," that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876. The opera opened on 17 November 1877 at the Opera Comique in London, where it ran for 178 performances.

On the creative team: Music & Stage Director: Albert Bergeret. Ass't. Stage Directors: James Mills, Robin Mahon. Ass't. Music Director & Accompanist: Andrea Stryker-Rodda. Set Design: Lou Anne Gilleland. Lighting Design: Benjamin Weill. Costumes by Gail J. Wofford.

For more information and tickets, visit www.nygasp.org or call 212-769-1000.

Photo Credit: Joseph Rubin