For our 85th season, the Pittsburgh Savoyards are offering the ability to purchase a season pass for all four of our shows for a discounted rate of just $60 per package!
July 15-30: The Importance of Being Earnest (Savoyards Studio Theatre, Bellevue, PA)
Oscar Wilde’s classic farcical comedy comes to the Savoyards Studio theatre at our air-conditioned headquarters in Bellevue! In late Victorian London, a pair of young bachelors attempt to maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations, which eventually backfires on them in spectacular fashion. Working within the social conventions of the time, the play explores the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways.
October 2022: The Sorcerer
(Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center, Ross Township, PA)
Based on the story An Elixir of Love which Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876, The Sorcerer is perhaps not as well known as some of Gilbert & Sullivan’s later works, but their lyrical and musical brilliance still shines through nonetheless! The operetta is their third composition as a duo and originally premiered in November of 1877.
A young man, Alexis, is obsessed with the idea of love levelling all ranks and social distinctions. To promote his beliefs, he invites the proprietor of J. W. Wells & Co., Family Sorcerers, to brew a love potion. Unfortunately, this causes everyone in the village to fall in love with the first person they see, which results in the pairing of comically mismatched couples! In the end, Wells must make a difficult choice in order to break the spell and set things back to normal.
November 25 – December 10: A Christmas Carol (Savoyards Studio Theatre, Bellevue, PA)
Also being performed in the Savoyards Studio theatre in Bellevue, this beloved Christmas ghost story by Charles Dickens is a holiday favorite sure to put you in the right mood for the season! Ebenezer Scrooge, a curmudgeonly old miser, hates Christmas because, in his words, it is a “poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December.” On Christmas Eve night though, he is visited by the ghost of his late business partner Jacob Marley, who warns of the horrors that await in the next world if he does not change his ways in this one while there is still time. The three ghosts of Christmas (Past, Present, and Yet to Come) take Scrooge on a journey through time to show him just how far-reaching the consequences of his actions are. But will it be enough to melt his heart and change his ways?
March 2023: Thespis (Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center, Ross Township, PA)
A Pittsburgh premiere! Thespis; or, The Gods Grown Old is Gilbert & Sullivan’s very first opera as a pair, originally performed in December 1871. Though the musical score is mostly lost to history, Gilbert’s libretto still exists, and the missing music has been expertly recreated by composer and former University of Pennsylvania musical director Bruce Montgomery.
On Mount Olympus, the elderly pantheon of deities complain of feeling old and lament their waning influence on Earth. An acting troupe headed by Thespis, the legendary Greek father of the drama, make their appearance, and convince the gods to temporarily trade places with them. The actors turn out to be comically inept rulers, committing such errors on Earth as ruining the weather, starting wars, and even getting rid of all the wine! Having seen the ensuing mayhem down below, the angry gods return, sending the actors back to Earth as “eminent tragedians, whom no one ever goes to see.”
