Guys and Dolls (1950)
Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser - Book by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling
At Ohio Light Opera, Loesser is more - “a bushel and a peck” more! No American musical has garnered more unanimously glowing accolades than Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows’ 1950 musical fable Guys and Dolls. Based on the stories and characters of famed writer Damon Runyon, the music, lyrics, and book bristle with the seedy street life of New York City. The show’s characters have assumed legendary recognition: gambler Sky Masterson has fallen hard for Save-A-Soul Mission reformer Sarah Brown; bookie Nathan Detroit has been engaged for 14 years to nightclub chanteuse Miss Adelaide, who laments her psychosomatic cold that has lasted just as long; and horseplayer Nicely-Nicely Johnson provides a revivalist confession (“Sit down, you’re rockin’ the boat”) when forced to give testimony at the Mission. Song hits include: “Luck be a lady,” “If I were a bell,” “I’ve never been in love before,” and “My time of day.”
GUYS & DOLLS is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. 421 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-541-4684 Fax: 212-397-4684 www.MTIShows.com

Historic recording sample:

A Connecticut Yankee (1927, revised 1943)
Music by Richard Rodgers - Lyrics by Lorenz Hart - Book by Herbert Fields
Rodgers and Hart meet Mark Twain - an enticing pairing indeed. The Ohio Light Opera proudly introduces Rodgers and Hart to its repertoire with their scintillating 1927 (revised in 1943) musical A Connecticut Yankee, based on Twain’s 1889 fantasy novel. After last season’s sold-out run of Camelot, OLO revisits this magical kingdom, but only after a brief stop in Connecticut. Join us in the adventures of Martin, who, after a wedding-eve whack on the head by his jealous fiancee Fay Morgan, “wakes up” in Camelot and has to do some quick thinking to escape an untimely death. He falls in love with the beautiful Alisande, but becomes caught up in the adventures of Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad, and the scheming Morgan Le Fay. The score offers one delight after another: “Thou swell, thou witty;” “On a desert island with thee;” one of musical theater’s most heartfelt declarations of love, “My heart stood still;” and Morgan Le Fay’s cynical lament over her many dead husbands, “To keep my love alive.”
A CONNECTICUT YANKEE is presented through special arrangement with R & H Theatricals: www.rnh.com.

Historic recording sample:





The Mikado (1885)
Music by Arthur Sullivan - Libretto by William Gilbert
More than 125 years after its premiere, The Mikado - in the timelessness of its characters and situations, its witty lyrics, and succession of engaging tunes - remains a wonder of lyrical theatre. Tailor Ko-Ko, condemned to death for flirting, is reprieved and appointed Lord High Executioner of Titipu. He is betrothed to his ward Yum-Yum, but she has fallen in love with the Mikado’s son Nanki-Poo. Displeased with the lack of executions in Titipu, the Mikado orders that the situation be rectified. Nanki-Poo, distraught because he cannot marry Yum-Yum, agrees to be executed in a month, provided that he can marry her in the meantime. When the Mikado sees Nanki-Poo's name on Ko-Ko’s falsified execution affidavit, he condemns Ko-Ko to death for compassing the death of the heir-apparent. "A wandering minstrel I," "I've got a little list," "Three little maids from school are we," "The flowers that bloom in the spring," and "Tit-willow" are but a few of the song gems that have made this the most popular of the G&S shows.

Historic recording sample:

The Chocolate Soldier (1909)
Music by Oscar Straus - English Libretto by Stanislaus Stange
“I have a true and noble lover ... Come, come, I love you only, my heart is true.” No song conjures up the romance of operetta better than the languorous waltz “My hero” from Oscar Straus’ The Chocolate Soldier. Based on a George Bernard Shaw play, the story concerns a chocolate-loving mercenary soldier, Bumerli, who takes refuge in the bedroom of Nadina, daughter of the enemy colonel. A mutual attraction develops, although she is engaged to and idolizes the dashing Major Alexius, whose gallantry on the battlefield, according to Bumerli, is not quite what he has claimed to Nadina. The relationship between Nadina and her “chocolate soldier” temporarily sours, however, when she believes, through a letter mix-up, that his attentions are more focused on her cousin Mascha. Straus’ musical score, in the true Viennese vein, includes the title song (“Oh, you little chocolate soldier man”), the Bumerli/Nadina duet “Sympathy,” and the rousing chorus “Thank the Lord the war is over.”

Historic recording sample:

Blossom Time (1921)
Music by Sigmund Romberg (from themes of Franz Schubert) - Book and Lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly
One of OLO’s most requested titles, Sigmund Romberg’s Blossom Time was the first of the composer’s blockbuster shows that defined the 1920s - via The Student Prince, The Desert Song, and The New Moon - as the heyday of American romantic operetta. Centered on the life of immortal Viennese composer Franz Schubert, and featuring Romberg’s engaging adaptations of famous Schubert melodies, the plot unfolds as a bittersweet account of the composer’s unrequited love for Mitzi, one of three daughters of the crown jeweler. To express his feelings for her, he writes “The song of love” - derived by Romberg from the sublime melody of the Unfinished Symphony. Too bashful to sing it to her himself, he engages his friend Baron Schober to serenade her. Mitzi thinks the sentiments are truly Schober’s and falls in love with him. Schubert is devastated and loses the will to live and continue composing. The musical score features instantly recognizable melodies from The Trout, Moment Musicale, Rosamunde, and Serenade.

Historic recording sample:

Utopia Limited (1893)
Music by Arthur Sullivan - Libretto by William Gilbert
The Ohio Light Opera is one of few companies in the world to produce the entire Gilbert and Sullivan canon (including a reconstruction of the lost Thespis). This season, G&S fans have the opportunity - the first in 12 years - to see one of their rarer works, Utopia Limited. Anglophile King Paramount, who rules over the island kingdom of Utopia, has sent his daughter, Princess Zara, to be educated in England - for him, the greatest, most powerful, and wisest country in the world. She returns with six Flowers of Progress, who remodel Utopia on English principles. The island becomes “swamped by dull prosperity” and, led by Paramount’s advisors, rises in revolt against the British intruders. Zara forestalls all-out rebellion by introducing party politics, which allows the flourishing of “healthy” graft and squalor. Gilbert misses no opportunity to hammer his normal share of institutions: Parliament, big business, and party politics. Sullivan’s musical highlights include an engaging duet for two princesses and a remarkable “minstrel” ensemble replete with tambourines.

Historic recording sample:

Miss Springtime (1917)
(Die Faschingsfee)
Music by Emmerich Kálmán - English libretto by Steven Daigle
More than any company in the world, The Ohio Light Opera has championed the operettas of Hungarian-born Emmerich Kálmán. For its tenth offering from this composer, OLO features the American premiere of his 1917 masterpiece Die Faschingsfee, presented under the title Miss Springtime. After being rescued by painter Victor Ronai from the lecherous advances of Count Lothar, the beautiful Princess Alexandra - immediately smitten by her savior - learns that, because of this rebuff, Lothar has withdrawn his commission for a high-priced fresco from Victor. Some time later, and without having again crossed paths with Victor, Alexandra anonymously restores to him the money that he would have made. In his new studio, Victor paints from memory the portrait of his “Miss Springtime.” However, when he learns from friends of his secret benefactor, and is introduced to her elderly fiancee, the proud Victor becomes outraged and destroys the painting. Miss Springtime, written right after Kálmán’s The Gypsy Princess, brims with catchy Viennese waltzes, marches, and ensembles.

Historic recording sample: