Gilbert and Sullivan - The Yeomen of the Guard / Marks Grey Opera World

Product Description FEATURING THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND A HOST OF INTERNATIONAL STARS, INCLUDING VINCENT PRICE, JOEL GRAY, PETER MARSHALL, KEITH MITCHELL, FRANKIE HOWERD AND PETER ALLEN. FILMED IN ENGLAND AND CREATED ESPECIALLY FOR TV, THEY HAVE DELIGHTED FANS ON PBS AND THE BBC. Amazon.com The Yeomen of the Guard, one of Gilbert and Sullivan's least satiric and most charming works, largely stars its rich, operatic score. The story, set at the Tower of London during Tudor times, is also beautifully constructed, with terrific pseudo-Shakespearean language. For such a vibrant piece, this video (part of the Opera World series of Gilbert and Sullivan works, made for the BBC in 1982) is strangely drab. The weakest element is Joel Grey as the melancholy clown Jack Point. The series mixes musical-comedy performers with opera singers, Americans with Brits. Grey's Broadway background isn't a drawback; in fact, some show-biz sparkle might have done him good. His sour, lethargic performance misses the potential for sunshine at the character's heart. Even his singing is doubtful--he has a hard time staying on key. Other actors are equally lackluster. David Hillman as Colonel Fairfax, around whom the plot's twists (and the two leading ladies) revolve, is fatally without charm. One redeeming presence is Alfred Marks as the dimwitted jailer Wilfred Shadbolt. Preposterously sure of himself, with a marvelous deadpan, this Wilfred comes to life more than anyone else on screen. For television, the operas in this series were restricted to a two-hour length. Most easily met that limit, but Yeomen underwent deep cuts. The result is both disappointing and confusing, with some major plot developments excised. And the film has been sloppily edited: dead moments mark a couple of junctures where songs, no doubt previously filmed, were snipped out. --David Olivenbaum From the Back Cover From the popular series seen on PBS and the BBC. Surrounded by the battlements of the Tower of London, Phoebe Meryll sits brooding over the coming execution of Colonel Fairfax. Phoebe's father, whose life Fairfax has twice saved, has a plan for disguising Fairfax as a yeoman to help him escape. The plot thickens with the arrival of Jack Point, a professional jester, and his sweetheart Elsie. For legal reasons, Fairfax needs to marry before he dies, and Elsie agrees to be his temporary