Sweet & Low: The Right Down Reg’lar Ruddy Racism of Gilbert & Sullivan
I first realized that Gilbert & Sullivan were problematic before I had ever performed in my first operetta. At age 23, I had graduated over a year earlier with a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre. Unsure of how to use that professionally, I was thinking about dipping my toe into the waters of community theatre; specifically Gilbert & Sullivan. I had loved Sullivan’s bright, sparkling music and Gilbert’s acid-tongued words for years and had longed to inhabit one of their baritone roles. I noodled around online to see what offerings were available to me, and I was considering auditioning for the Savoy Opera Company of Philadelphia, which touts itself as the oldest amateur Gilbert & Sullivan society in the world. They proudly boast about even possessing a letter from W. S. Gilbert himself, thanking the society for its devotion to the operettas penned by himself and his “esteemed colleague Sir Arthur Sullivan” over the course of twenty-five-odd years. As a lover of all things G&S, I wanted very much to be a part of this group. Whereas most “normal” theatre troupes simply have auditions, at which you either get the part you’re after or you don’t, the Savoy Opera Company required something else of prospective members: an “initiation tea”, to, as I believe it was put, determine one’s suitability for the organization, and vice-versa.