Light Opera of Manhattan

between 1968 and 1989.

Beginning years at the Jan Hus

In the fall of 1968, William Mount-Burke, the former director of The Miami Light Opera and The Stamford Symphony, took steps to start an Off-Broadway company specializing in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He first presented a free showcase performance of "The Pirates of Penzance" at his apartment in New York City. [http://www.musicals101.com/loomhistory.htm Article on the history of LOOM] ] The success of this performance encouraged Mount-Burke to move forward with his plan. Mount-Burke formed a non-profit organization, The Light Opera of Manhattan, which came to be known as LOOM. The producer and his company next offered a number of free performances at St. Michael's Church on East 99th Street, in Manhattan. Soon, LOOM moved into the basement gymnasium of The Jan Hus House on East 74th Street, previously the home of Dorothy Raedler's American Savoyards, intending to play a limited engagement. However, the company stayed at the Jan Hus for almost seven years, performing predominantly the Savoy operas Gilbert and Sullivan, such as "Pirates", "The Mikado" and "H.M.S. Pinafore".

Raymond Allen, who had previously sung with the American Savoyards and made guest appearances at New York City Opera and the City Center Gilbert & Sullivan Company, was the leading comic actor for most of the company's performances. [ [http://www.musicals101.com/News/LOOMallenObit.jpgScan of Raymond Allen's obituary in the NY Times, February 3, 1994] ] Allen wrote an introduction to "The Best of Gilbert & Sullivan: 42 Favorite Songs from the G&S Repertoire", a songbook published by Chappell Music Company in the early 1970s. The book includes many photographs of LOOM productions and states that LOOM's year-round performing season was the longest of any company in the United States. [The book was designed by Lee Snider and distributed by Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, HL00312177.]

Under LOOM's Equity union contract, casting consisted of seven union principals and over twenty non-union actors who could receive their Equity membership after an apprenticeship with the company. This arrangement was unique among full-time theatre companies in New York. The pay for the non-union actors was nominal, but many young actor/singers who aspired to be full-time professionals were able to receive training and could work their way up from the ensemble to featured roles in the course of a year.

Many future New York City Opera and Broadway professionals started out at LOOM, including writer/director Gerard Alessandrini of "Forbidden Broadway"; Craig Schulman of "Les Misérables". [ [http://www.talkinbroadway.com/rialto/past/2001/12_23_01.html Inteview with Craig Schulman] ] Robert Cuccioli of "Jekyll & Hyde"; Stephen O'Mara, opera singer; Penny Orloff, City Opera and broadway performer; Carolyne Mas, recording artist; Michael Connolly of "Annie", "Amadeus" and others; Larry Raiken (now a Professor at Hartt College, who appeared in "Woman of the Year", "Baby", "Big River", "Sheik of Avenue B", "Can-Can", "How to Succeed...", and "Follies", among others); and Joan Lader, voice teacher to the stars (her pupils have included Madonna, Patti LuPone, Roberta Flack, and Tonya Pinkins). Macaulay Culkin played Tom Tucker (the juvenile "midshipmite") in "H.M.S. Pinafore".

LOOM initially bought a number of its costumes and stage properties from Dorothy Raedler's American Savoyards. It designed its own sets and other costumes, seeking to achieve a professional appearance on a small budget. [ [http://www.georgedstinson.com/ Information about LOOM costumes] ] Choreographer/stage manager Jerry Gotham (a former Broadway dancer) made much of the limited space and resources. The orchestra consisted of two players: pianist Brian Molloy, a graduate of Juilliard, who played every score by heart, and Mount-Burke himself, covering the organ and timpani, while conducting the performance.

The peak years

Moving up to the Eastside Playhouse

In 1975, the company moved out of the Jan Hus to the legitimate Off-Broadway Eastside Playhouse, just across E. 74th Street. [http://www.geocities.com/mdonadio/ Site with numerous photographs of the Eastside Playhouse and LOOM productions there, as well as historical information] ] This 284-seat house was still intimate, but the company could generate substantially more revenues than it could in the Jan Hus basement. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9902E6DE153BF933A15752C0A967948260 1981 NY Times preview of LOOM's 1981 spring season] ] In addition, the theatre had better stage facilities, good seating (instead of folding chairs), stage lighting and a balcony. All the sight-lines were good, whereas in the Jan Hus there were vertical poles interfering with some views. At Jan Hus, the company's staging had been designed to refer to the positions of these poles, and even after the company moved to the Eastside Playhouse, Gotham taught the staging of the (by this time) two dozen shows in the repertory by reference to the imaginary positions of the poles, as they had existed at Jan Hus. While at the Eastside Playhouse, LOOM published a music book containing an introduction by Raymond Allen and many photographs of the company in its Gilbert and Sullivan productions. ["The Best of Gilbert & Sullivan: 42 Favorite Songs from the G&S Repertoire." Chappell Music Company, c. 1975. Introduction by Raymond Allen; book designed by Lee Snider.]

", with Broadway veteran Jeanne Beauvais as Huguette.

In the mid-1970s, the company asked Alice Hammerstein Mathias (Oscar Hammerstein II's daughter) to create a new translation of Franz Lehár's "The Merry Widow". The translation is lighter and focuses more on the humorous aspects of the show than some of the standard translations. With Jeanne Bouvais again in the lead, "The Merry Widow" was a success that increased LOOM's audiences and received positive reviews. Friml's "The Vagabond King" and "Rose Marie"; Sigmund Romberg's "The Student Prince", "The Desert Song", "The New Moon"; Herbert's "Naughty Marietta", "The Red Mill", "Mlle. Modiste" and "The Fortune Teller"; Jacques Offenbach's "The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein"; and Johann Strauss II's "A Night in Venice", and others became favorites of the company. "The Student Prince" and "Mlle. Modiste" became showcases for Georgia McEver, LOOM's leading soprano for several seasons.

Alice Hammerstein Mathias was then asked to prepare a new book and lyrics for Victor Herbert's "Babes In Toyland", which had not been given a professional New York production in many years. Her original story centered on two unhappy children who run away to Toyland but are eventually reconciled with their parents. Children were invited onstage from the audience to "wind up" the choristers who played toys in the "March of the Wooden Soldiers." "Babes" was a perennial hit for LOOM, offering parents an alternative to Radio City's annual Christmas show, and Victor Herbert's beloved tunes delighted older audience members. [ [http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9B0DEFD61630F934A25751C1A961948260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fT%2fTheater 1987 NY Times review of LOOM "Babes in Toyland" at the 91st St. Playhouse] ] LOOM played "Babes in Toyland" each year from Thanksgiving through New Year's.

In the 1970s, LOOM also presented a series of September concerts at the Naumburg Bandshell, in Central Park, which were broadcast live over WNYC radio. The company was also featured on NBC's "Today" program, as well as numerous times on WQXR's "The Listening Room". [ [http://naumburgconcerts.org/archive.htm 1970s Naumberg Bandshell concert schedule] ]

The Festival Year and bright hopes

[

---

thumb|left|220px|King_Paramount_confers_with_Scaphio_and_Phantis_in_Utopia, Limited"] In 1978–79, in its tenth year, LOOM staged all 13 extant works of Gilbert and Sullivan consecutively in one season, one opera per week. It was the first company in the world to attempt this schedule (the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company had played all 13 operas consecutively in its 1975 centenary season, but "The Grand Duke" was only a concert performance). In the last two of these weeks, "Utopia Limited" and "The Grand Duke", Gilbert and Sullivan's last two G&S operas, were given rare New York professional revivals, although the American Savoyards had performed them two decades earlier, and LOOM had also introduced them before this season. Both shows played strongly and were given more extended runs the following season. During "The Festival Year", student tickets were available for $4.00. However, the strain of rehearsing and mounting a new production every week for so many weeks in a row took its toll on the cast.

" wrote, in its preview of LOOM's 1981 spring season, "The three works ("Pinafore, Pirates" and "The Mikado") ...will be done in the best Savoyard tradition. Do not expect a fully mounted D'Oyly Carte theatrical version.... Expect, however, to hear some fine voices and to be entertained."

This period in the company's history is lampooned in the 2003 comic novel, "Jewish Thighs on Broadway: Misadventures of a Little Trouper" by Penny Orloff, who played Josephine in "Pinafore", Mabel in "Pirates", and the title role in "Iolanthe" in the summer of 1980. [Orloff, Penny. "Jewish Thighs on Broadway: Misadventures of a Little Trouper". Authorhouse. ISBN 1-4033-9822-4]

After Mount-Burke's death

Mount-Burke finally succumbed to his diabetes in 1984. Gotham and Allen took over as joint artistic directors to oversee the productions, and assistant music director Todd Ellison was promoted to music director. Jean Dalrymple, a producer of City Center's musical theatre revivals in the 1950s, who had been involved for many years in fundraising for the company, became president of LOOM and produced the shows, which continued uninterrupted, 52 weeks per year. But the company almost immediately ran into a number of misfortunes and costs, perhaps most importantly the loss of the Eastside Playhouse. The Building was scheduled to be demolished to make way for an apartment building, and LOOM was forced to leave.

LOOM transferred first to The Norman Thomas High School Auditorium, which was too large for its intimate productions and too distant from the Upper East Side neighborhood where it had built its reputation. Its reduced audiences were dwarfed by the large auditiorium. Next, from February 1985 to October 1986, LOOM performed at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village, but this black box theatre was too small. Although the company's ticket sales improved there, even sellout crowds were insufficient to generate sufficient revenues to stay ahead of the expenses of paying the large casts needed for light opera. Nevertheless, LOOM continued to introduce new productions, including Herbert's "Sweethearts" [ [http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?_r=1&res=9A0DE7D91530F936A25756C0A960948260&oref=slogin NY Times review of "Sweethearts"] ] and William H. Smith's "The Drunkard". [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE0D61631F93BA2575BC0A960948260 NY Times review of "The Drunkard"] ] Despite constant fundraising, and deep in red ink, LOOM ceased performing in October 1986 with a matinee of "The Vagabond King". [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE1D9173DF930A25753C1A960948260 Article about LOOM's closing at the Cherry Lane] ]

", called "Give My Regards to Broadway". The show involved more tap dancing than any other show Off-Broadway and revived the company's popularity. Despite good box office performance, the company continued to suffer from old tax problems. LOOM closed permanently in August 1989, with a run of "The Pirates of Penzance" – the company's first opera in 1968. After 1989, there were discussions about trying to revive the company, and one or two brief New York City productions used the LOOM name, but they were not by the same company.

Raymond Allen died on January 29 1994 in Queens, New York, ending any possibility of a LOOM reunion. [ [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30915FA3B5D0C708CDDAB0894DC494D81 Allen's NY Times obituary] ]

Notes

References

*cite book|last=Allen|first=Raymond|title="The Best of Gilbert & Sullivan: 42 Favorite Songs from the G&S Repertoire|publisher=Chappell Music Company Book designed by Lee Snider. Introduction, photos of Light Opera of Manhattan/First Night programmes.
* [http://www.musicals101.com/News/LOOMallenObit.jpgScan of Raymond Allen's obituary in the "New York Times", February 3, 1994]
* [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30915FA3B5D0C708CDDAB0894DC494D81 Text of Allen's "NY Times" obituary at NY Times archive]
* [http://www.musicals101.com/loom.htm LOOM homepage at the Musicals101 website with photos and history]
*cite book|last=Orloff|first=Penny|title="Jewish Thighs on Broadway: Misadventures of a Little Trouper|publisher=Authorhouse (ISBN 1-4033-9822-4) Contains several chapters spoofing LOOM.
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE1D9173DF930A25753C1A960948260 NY Times write-up of LOOM's last performance at the Cherry Lane in 1986]

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/mdonadio/ Photographs of Eastside Playhouse, Mount-Burke and others--click on links for more]
* [http://www.geocities.com/mdonadio/frontpage.html Photograph and program from 1984]
* [http://www.geocities.com/mdonadio/the_light_opera.html Numerous photographs]
* [http://naumburgconcerts.org/archive.htm 1970s Naumberg Bandshell concert schedule]
* [http://www.georgedstinson.com/ Costume designs for LOOM by George Stinson]
* [http://www.talkinbroadway.com/rialto/past/2001/12_23_01.html Inteview with Craig Schulman]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00EFD61E39F93BA25757C0A967948260 NY Times review of LOOM's production of "Patience" from 1981]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE0DC1F39F936A25752C1A967948260 NY Times review of LOOM's production of "The Red Mill" from 1981]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B06EFDB153BF935A2575BC0A967948260 NY Times Critics' Choice piece on LOOM's production of "Ruddigore" from 1981]
* [http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9802E2DB123BF935A25756C0A963948260 NY Times review of LOOM's production of "Naughty Marietta" from 1985]
* [http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9A0DE7D91530F936A25756C0A960948260 NY Times review of LOOM's production of "Sweethears" from 1985]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE0D61631F93BA2575BC0A960948260 NY Times review of LOOM's production of "The Drunkard" from 1986]
* [http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9B0DEFD61630F934A25751C1A961948260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fT%2fTheater 1987 NY Times review of LOOM "Babes in Toyland" at Playhouse 91]
* [http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?_r=1&res=940DE3DC1039F933A05754C0A96E948260&oref=slogin 1988 NY Times review of a LOOM "Pirates" at Playhouse 91]
* [http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=940DE4D7123BF931A35756C0A96E948260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fT%2fTheater 1988 NY Times review of a LOOM "H.M.S. Pinafore" at Playhouse 91]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEED61F3AF930A15752C0A96F948260 NY Times review of LOOM's production of "The Student Prince" from 1989]