Gilbert and Sullivan

Playwright/lyricist William S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer Arthur S. Sullivan (1842-1900) defined operetta or comic operas in Victorian England with a series of their internationally successful and timeless works known as the Savoy Operas.

Cultural influence

Many cultural movements saw the influence of Gilbert and Sullivan. For instance, aestheticism, the cultural movement characterized by Oscar Wilde and satirized in Patience, was actually introduced to the United States by Richard D'Oyly Carte in order that Americans could understand the operetta. In terms of humor, the idea of extending a joke throughout a piece of literature and/or comedy work is prevalent in the Savoy Operas.

Related Topics:
Aestheticism - Oscar Wilde

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In 1999 Mike Leigh's film Topsy-Turvy presented an acclaimed film depiction of the team and the creation of their most popular operetta, The Mikado.

Related Topics:
1999 - Mike Leigh - Topsy-Turvy

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The works of Gilbert and Sullivan, filled as they are with parodies of their contemporary culture, are themselves frequently parodied or pastiched; a notable example of this is Tom Lehrer's Elements song, which consists of Lehrer's rhyming rendition of the names of all the chemical elements set to the music of Major General's Song from the operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Lehrer also includes a verse parodying a Gilbert and Sullivan finale in his patchwork of stylistic creations Clementine ("full of words and music and signifying nothing", as Lehrer put it, thus parodying G & S and Shakespeare in the same sentence).

Related Topics:
Tom Lehrer - Elements song - Major General's Song - Shakespeare

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The Popeye theme song was apparently directly inspired by G & S. The first two phrases

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:I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, I'm Popeye the Sailor Man

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are nearly identical to the first two phrases of the "Pirate King" song from The Pirates of Penzance

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:For I am a Pirate King! (Hoorah for the Pirate King!)

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except for the high note on the first "King".

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Another song from "Pirates", which starts "With cat-like tread..." leads up to a segment that starts "Come, friends who plough the sea..." which is more recognizable with its modern lyric, "Hail, hail, the gang's all here..."

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Allan Sherman sang several parodies...

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• I'm called Little Butterball (about Allan's admitted corpulence)
• When I was a lad I went to Yale (about a young advertising agent)
• You need an analyst, a psychoanalyst (a variant on "I've got a little list")
• Titwillow (about a Yiddish-talking bird that meets a sad fate)

Anna Russell performed a parody called "How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera".

Related Topics:
Anna Russell - Parody

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In Runaround, a short story in Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, Powell and Donovan encounter a robot who is in a state similar to drunkenness, singing "There Grew a Little Flower" (from Ruddigore), upon which Donovan remarks "Where did he pick up Gilbert and Sullivan"?

Related Topics:
Runaround - Isaac Asimov - I, Robot - Powell and Donovan - Drunkenness - Ruddigore

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In the early 1980s, around the time of the straight version of "Pirates" starring Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt, there was a parody (or "updated") film called The Pirate Movie starring Christopher Atkins and Kristy McNichol. The film Chariots of Fire also draws much from the G & S repertoire.

Related Topics:
Kevin Kline - Linda Ronstadt - The Pirate Movie - Christopher Atkins - Kristy McNichol - Chariots of Fire

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The popular TV series Family Guy drew from Gilbert and Sullivan with a parody of the Captain's Song from H.M.S. Pinafore. Larry David's show Curb Your Enthusiasm uses Three Little Maids from The Mikado as background music. In The Simpsons episode "Cape Fear" Bart asks Sideshow Bob to sing "the entire score of H.M.S. Pinafore" as a last request, which is fulfilled. In the ninth Star Trek feature film the characters Captain Picard, Worf and Data sing "A British Tar". The character Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark sings Pinafore tunes when he is excited or overjoyed. In Angel in the fifth season Charles Gunn has the ability to be a good lawyer input into his head, along with a lot of Gilbert and Sullivan, because it's "great for elocution". He then mentions that he could sing all of "The Pirates of Penzance", and later in the series broke into "Three Little Maids" from The Mikado.

Related Topics:
Family Guy - H.M.S. Pinafore - Larry David - Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Mikado - The Simpsons - Bart - Sideshow Bob - Star Trek - Raiders of the Lost Ark - Angel

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