Sullivan and Gilbert is a musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 by Ken Ludwig

Ken Ludwig

Ken Ludwig is an American playwright and theatre director.Born in York, Pennsylvania, Ludwig was educated at the York Suburban Senior High School, York PA Haverford College , Harvard Law School, and Trinity College at Cambridge University...

 with music and lyrics by Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...

. Sullivan and Gilbert features over 15 Gilbert and Sullivan songs. It examines an eventful day in the lives of the famous Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 composer and dramatist, and takes place behind the scenes at the Savoy Theatre

Savoy Theatre

The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...

 in London.

Sullivan and Gilbert premiered in 1983 at National Arts Centre of Canada, where it won the Ottawa Critics’ Circle award for Best Play of the Year, followed by a run at the Kennedy Center starring Fritz Weaver

Fritz Weaver

Fritz William Weaver is an American actor and voice actor.-Life and career:Weaver was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Elsa W. and John Carson Weaver. His mother was of Italian descent and his father was a social worker from Pittsburgh. Weaver attended Peabody High School...

 and Noel Harrison

Noel Harrison

Noel Harrison is an English Olympic athlete, actor and singer. He is the son of British actor Sir Rex Harrison.-Early life:...

. It also played in Milford, New Hampshire in 1983. The cast includes eight men and four women.

This is not the only show about the Gilbert and Sulivan partnership. A 1938 Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 show, Knights of Song, tells the story of the partnership, as do the musicals "The Savoyards", by Donald Madgwick (1971) and "Tarantara Tarantara", by Ian Taylor (1975), and the films The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan

The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan

The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan is a 1953 British technicolor film that dramatises the story of the collaboration between W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Gilbert and Sullivan authored 14 comic operas, later referred to as the Savoy Operas, which became the most popular series of musical...

and Topsy-Turvy

Topsy-Turvy

Topsy-Turvy is a 1999 musical drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh and stars Allan Corduner as Arthur Sullivan and Jim Broadbent as W. S. Gilbert, along with Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville. The story concerns the 15-month period in 1884 and 1885 leading up to the premiere of Gilbert...

.

Synopsis

Near the end of their collaboration, and still smarting from their famous carpet quarrel, W. S. Gilbert

W. S. Gilbert

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...

 and Sir Arthur Sullivan have neither seen nor spoken with each other in months. Now they must supervise a rehearsal for a revue of their comic opera

Comic opera

Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...

s, a command performance for Queen Victoria. The underprepared show is set to open in about eight hours. Sullivan has been ill and has missed most of the rehearsals; and he’s in love with pretty Violet Russell, a young soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 of whom Gilbert disapproves. To make matters worse, Sullivan has invited Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh

Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and reigned from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...

 (and son of the Queen), to join the cast. The eager duke can't sing, dance or remember his cues. When Gilbert finds out, he's furious. With a company of temperamental actors to manage, and their producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte

Richard D'Oyly Carte

Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...

, breathing down their necks, there is plenty for the two men to fight about. But their admiration for each other as collaborators and friends wins the day.