Light Opera of Manhattan - The Peak Years - Moving Up To The Eastside Playhouse

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. This 284-seat house was still intimate, but the company could generate substantially more revenues than it could in the Jan Hus basement. In addition, the theatre had better stage facilities, good seating, 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.

Beginning in 1975 and through the 1980s, LOOM added American and continental operettas to its roster, eventually carrying over 30 shows in its repertory. Its first non-G&S show was Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta, with guest artist Joan Sena-Grande in the title role, in 1975. Larry Raiken played Captain Dick Warrington. The next operetta with a guest star was Rudolph Friml's 1925 hit, The Vagabond King, 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. 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.

Read more about this topic:  Light Opera Of Manhattan, The Peak Years

Famous quotes containing the word moving:

    Light-lashed, self-righteous, above moving snouts,
    the pigs’ eyes followed him, a cheerful stare,
    even to the sow that always ate her young—
    Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)