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The twelve-week repertory began with The Gondoliers. Confirmed Gilbert & Sullivan enthusiasts, most of whom seem to emerge from the suburbs only when their favorites are produced, did not need to be told the story of the two boatmen who became the extremely democratic but temporary Kings of Barataria. They were not surprised when the rightful heir turned up, but they were mightily surprised and mightily pleased at the amazing finesse of the company. Nothing like it had been seen on Broadway since the Gilbert & Sullivan revivals of Winthrop Ames in 1926. There was life and spontaneity in the D'Oyly Carte troupe, tradition without staleness, sensitivity without clowning. Nor did perfect teamwork subordinate individual talent. Martyn Green was marvelously mincing as the Duke of Plaza Toro ("His place was at the fore, O" when his troops retreated). Sydney Granville's Grand Inquisitor was played to the very depths of philosophical pompousness ("When everyone is somebodee, then no one's anybody"). As one of the gondoliers, Derek Oldham made most U. S. radio crooners sound like old clothes peddlers when he sang the lovely "Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes.'' Equally well-dressed, admirably performed was The Pirates, billed for the rest of the first week.
For Gilbert & Sullivan, Richard D'Oyly Carte built the Savoy Theatre in 1881. It was the first in London to have electric lights. There has never been a lapse in production. The musicians have access to the original scores by Sullivan. The actors have preserved, every bit of "business" Gilbert invented. There have been no interpolations, no innovations. Actors are recruited young from the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music. Guild"-hall School of Music, trained in the chorus, graduated to parts. They play 48 weeks a year, 14 to 20 in London, the rest in the provinces. In 1926 the company went out of the country for the first time when it toured Canada. Two years later came another Canadian tour, with a short swing through the western U. S.
Rupert D'Oyly Carte, 57, oversees but does not meddle in the company's activi ties. That is left to a man even more directly connected with the past. Stage Di rector James McRobie Gordon, a member of the original Patience company. Mr. Carte, small and self-effacing, concerns himself with other phases of his inheri tance. His father, as shrewd a real-estate man as a producer, left him controlling interests in London's Savoy, Berkeley and New Claridge Hotels as well as the swank Simpson Restaurant on the Strand. Son Rupert spends much of his time with his 14 assorted dogs in Devonshire.