Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society

For 60 years, the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society has been presenting widely acclaimed productions on stages throughout the Seattle area. It is partially through their efforts, as well as the work of so many other dedicated and hard-​working amateur theater companies, that Seattle has become the west coast theater mecca it is renowned for throughout the country. Yet, based upon a sudden and random attack from a newspaper columnist with broad and largely uneducated assumptions, an ax to grind, and a need for self-​promotion, a small group of people who have never seen one of their productions (and likely never will) have lately chosen to single them out for some of the most unfair and undeserved accusations ever anonymously posted to an internet website.
The facts are these: their yearly productions are excellent, well-​produced, and feature some of the most talented professional and semi-​professional performers in the region. Even if you have no prior experience with Gilbert and Sullivan, I strongly encourage you to buy a ticket and attend a performance. I promise that you will be entertained and will want to come back for more. If you live outside the Puget Sound area, I recommend their excellent DVDs, which well capture the top quality production values which the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society brings to each of their shows.
We return you now to the unwarranted rantings already in progress. Grains of salt anyone?

At best, mediocre. The singing of the two romantic leads are fine, but there are some weaknesses in some of the character actors. And some of the character acting suffers from some surprisingly weak choices and lack of energy.
As for as the purported yellow face, I think this was an ill considered choice. Choosing to be realistic with the props and costumes, but NOT with the ethnicity of the actors seems to be self contradictory. As well, if the aim of the satire was to lampoon British society, it’s probably ill served to go to the trouble of trying to replicate the trappings but not the guts of another society. It’s 21^st Century America, not 19^th Century Britain. There’s been shifts in all the underlying symbols, and trying to do a xerox copy of 19^th Century Japan is a disservice to the underlying story, which is still valid and strong after all these years. And that’s not even going into the race bending in the casting, which is firmly linked to decades of actual racism and discriminatory practices on stage and on film. (And we’re not even going into some of the questionable choices in choreography and use of Noh artistry in a kabuki style).
All in all, adequate, but surely can be done better.

These guys are arrogant, obnoxious, and functionally unresponsive to the written protests about their racist yellow-​face casting. I can say that from experience because they have not responded to a single one of my written complaints, even though all were civil and asked for a response.

The 2009 production of Utopia, Ltd., especially the ‘minstrel show’ scene, was great!

I am extremely disappointed and frustrated that the Seattle G&S Society chose to retain its Orientalist take on The Mikado in its 2014 production. I don’t know that the Society could have avoided a mostly white cast but I wish they had taken more responsibility and thought behind their ultimate artistic choices to put on, in effect, a yellowface cast.
There have been many interpretations of The Mikado around the world, including ones with Victorian attire put on by companies like the English National Opera in 1987 and 2012. If the satirical target of the play is indeed high Victorian society, then the caricatured Japanese trappings («authentic»? not trying to be authentic?) are not necessary.
As an eight-​year old Japanese American girl who watched the Mikado many years ago, I didn’t get the satire element and no one (including the producers) explained that to me. I haven’t seen any indication that the Seattle G&S Society is making that point clear to its audiences. All I saw, and thus all I remember, was taped eyelids, and kimonos, and an auditorium of people laughing at people who were supposed to be Japanese, but were unlike any Japanese that I knew. However, just as lovers of The Mikado cherish their attachments to the play, the humiliation associated with my experience is hard to erase.
As an educator, I’m also extremely disappointed that the Society chose to react to critique with an irate response letter rather than hosting discussion forums or talkbacks. Talkbacks are not a new practice, either. Ultimately, what this production has taught me is that the Society is not interested in «family» entertainment for my Asian American family or friends – in a Pacific Northwest community where Asian Americans are a significant part of the population – and it never will be.
I had hoped that theater was one community space where we could all agree to meet and feel respected and included. It’s devastating to be proven wrong in this case.

My wife and I recently attended Pirates of Penzance and enjoyed it thoroughly. It wasn’t Doyle Carte exactly, but it was a real breath of fresh air in this stiflingly faddish town. If you haven’t seen any G & S and you have any love of music and comedy, you must go see something put on by the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Mikado, Pinafore, and Pirates are hands down the best of G & S and some of the best entertainment you will ever see or hear. The great musicals (My Fair Lady, Sound of Music, Music Man, Oklahoma, Mary Poppins, etc) all owe their existence to these three operettas and the men who wrote them. If you like the great musicals, you will love G & S and the Seattle G & S Society.