Herein is song—and dance too! The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players will open their 2025-2026 season with The Yeomen of the Guard, playing October 25 and 26 at Hunter College's Kaye Playhouse, and the cast of Tower Warders and London citizens has just been announced.
Set in and around the Tower of London in Tudor times, The Yeomen of the Guard centers around Colonel Fairfax, condemned to death for sorcery after being framed by his cousin. While the Colonel's comrade-in-arms Sergeant Meryll plots with his children Phoebe and Leonard to rescue Fairfax, Fairfax himself enacts a scheme to thwart his cousin's inheritance.
Tenor Thomas Valenti will play the central figure of Colonel Fairfax, alongside Andrew Martens, Amy Maude Helfer, and Cameron Smith as the three Merylls. Natalia Hulse will be the street singer Elsie Maynard who unwittingly gets caught in the plot. David Auxier will sing Sir Richard Cholmondeley, the sympathetic-if-stern Lieutenant of the Tower. Also featured will be Matthew Wages as the jailer Wilfred Shadbolt, Angela Christine Smith as Dame Carruthers, and Sarah Hutchison as Kate. NYGASP's new Artistic Director James Mills is directing the production, in addition to completing the cast in the pivotal role of the jester Jack Point.
The chorus wil include Sam Balzac, Caitlin Borek, Michael Connolly, Quinn Corcoran, Hannah Eakin, Katie Hall, Maurio Hines, Mark Hosseini, Patrick Lord-Remmert, Jack Murphy, Monique Pelletier, Darrick Penny, Helen Jane Planchet, Alex Poletti, Sarah Caldwell Smith, Tyler Tejada, Kyle Torrence, and David Vogel.
The production will feature costumes by Gail J. Wofford and Jan Holland, scenic design by Rick Manfredi and Albére, and lighting by Benjamin Weill. Music Director Joseph Rubin will conduct the 27-piece orchestra.
The 11th collaboration between playwright W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, The Yeomen of the Guard marked a turn toward more serious subjects for the duo, after more than a decade of writing comedies. The severe tone of the piece sets it apart in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon, with Sullivan's majestic score marking an attempt toward something approaching the vein of grand opera, which, by 1888, was increasingly becoming his ambition. The opera was a success upon its premiere, playing 423 performances in its original run, and was regularly revived, both in London and on Broadway, in the following decades.
Performances of The Yeomen of the Guard are October 25 at 2 PM and 7:30 PM, and October 26 at 3 PM. Tickets start at $30.
For more information visit NYGASP.org.
