Light Opera of Manhattan - Beginning Years at The Jan Hus

Beginning Years At The Jan Hus

In the fall of 1968, William Mount-Burke (1936–1984), 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. 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. In 1969, 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 of 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. 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 1974. 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.

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. 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 whose pupils have included Madonna, Patti LuPone, Roberta Flack, Tonya Pinkins and others. 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. 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.