"The adaptability, elasticity even, of Gilbert and Sullivan is in evidence in Manhattan thesedays as two groups present nontraditional versions of "H.M.S.Pinafore" and "The Pirates of Penzance."
"At the end of "The Pirates of Penzance" by Gilbert and Sullivan, the pirates abandon their criminal ways out of their love for Queen Victoria. In the Gorilla Repertory Theater company's adaptation, the show ends with the pirates seizing Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, chanting, "Do your duty, down with Rudy," and throwing him overboard."
To read more click here."Gorilla Rep's Macbeth is gorgeous fun. Played on the Shakespeare Lawn at Fort Tryon Park, against a backdrop of craggy trees between whose leaves we can spy the splendor of both the Cloisters and the Hudson River, the familiar play comes alive under the remarkable direction of Christopher Carter Sanderson and the vivid and vigorous acting of its sixteen actors."
"Lighting is provided from above by whatever celestial bodies inhabit the night sky, and from below by Gorilla Rep's trademark mega-watt torches, skillfully operated by Sanderson and various actors doubling as handlers."
To read more click here."Twelfth Night' is something of a community affair in the version mounted by the Gorilla Repertory Theater in Fort Tyron Park. This is the second year that Gorilla, a late-summer fixture in Washington Square Park, is taking its free Shakespeare to this spectacular setting almost at the northern tip of Manhattan. The company presents Macbeth' on Thursdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Twelfth Night on Fridays and Sundays, also at 8. Feste the clown begins drawing the audience into the action early on, pulling children from the crowd to join in his songs and dances. Very soon almost everyone but Malvolio treats the onlookers, including dogs, like part of the ensemble."
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"Dunsinane can seldom have looked as spectacular as it does in the Macbeth staged in Fort Tryon Park by the Gorilla Repertory Theater Company as the opening production in its eighth season. The massive walls, araches and stairs of the Fort Tryon Memorial. about 100 years from the park entrance at 190th Street, form the back drop, with the tow of the Clositers behind it rising dark in front of the moon and, opposite, the Hudson River glittering through foliage 150 feet below. Processions of witches, killers, apparitions and armies comouflaged as trees seem quite natural as night falls."
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“. . . to newer devotees, who haven't seen all the plays a dozen times, Leah Ryan's new adaptation, as well as the skilled cast's collective performance, can be an eye-opener.”
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"What the Dormouse
And All the Others Said
'Alice in Wonderland'
Federal Plaza"
"Alice in Wonderland, the way the Gorilla Repertory Theater Company does it, would be great to happen upon while strolling down Lafayette Street at twilight."
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