Topsy Turvy (Soundtrack album)

Louise Gold starred as Rosina Brandram playing Katisha in The Mikado (stars on Track 7 and is also on Track 18), Recorded on: 27 July 1998 at CTS Studios London, 22-24 February and 25-27 March 1999 at Angel Studios London.

Catalogue number: (Sony Classical CD) SK 61834, Soundtrack album for the film Topsy Turvy

Cast

Solo Artistes

Miss Jessie Bond (Pitti Sing in The Mikado) - Dorothy Atkinson

Mrs Fanny Ronalds (Sullivan’s mistress) - Eleanor David

Mr Rutland Barrington (Pooh-Bah in The Mikado) - Vincent Franklin

Miss Rosina Brandram (Katisha in The Mikado) - Louise Gold

Miss Leonora Braham (Yum Yum in The Mikado, and Aline in The Sorcerer) - Shirley Henderson

Mr Durwood Lely (Nanki Poo in The Mikado and Alexis in The Sorcerer) - Kevin McKidd

Miss Sybil Grey (Peep-Bo in The Mikado) - Cathy Sara

Mr George Grossmith (Ko Ko in The Mikado, King Gama in Princess Ida, and, Mr Wells in The Sorcerer ) - Martin Savage

Mr Frederick Bovill (Pish-Tush in The Mikado) - Michael Simkins

Mr Richard Temple (The Mikado in The Mikado) - Timothy Spall

Female Chorus

Miss Fitzherbert – Kacey Ainsworth, Miss Jardine – Lorraine Brunning, Miss Moore – Rosie Cavaliero, Miss Bunny Warren – Michelle Chadwick, Miss Kingsley – Debbie Chazen, Miss Violet Russell – Heather Craney, Miss Barnes – Monica Dolan, Miss Brown – Sophie Duval, Miss Biddles – Anna Francolini, Miss Coleford – Teresa Gallagher, Miss Woods – Sarah Howe, Miss Tringham – Ashley Jensen, Miss Meadows – Julie Jupp, Miss Langton-James – Gemma Page, Miss Carlye – Mary Roscoe, Miss Catherine Betts – Nicola Wainwright, Miss Wilkinson – Angie Wallis

Male Chorus

Mr Marchmont – Ashley Artus, Mr Gordon – Richard Attlee, Mr Flagstone – Paul Barnhill, Mr Price – Mark Benton, Mr Conyngham – Nicholas Boulton, Mr Lewis – Simon Butteriss, Mr Rhys – Wayne Cater, Mr Hammond – Richard Coyle, Mr Bentley – Paul Rider, Mr Kent – Steven Speirs, Mr Walter Evans – Kevin Walton, Mr Sanders - John Warnaby

Production Team

 Music by - Carl Davis from the works of Arthur Sullivan

Published by - Thin Man Films / BMG Music Publishing LTD

Lyrics by - W. S. Gilbert

Additional lyrics - Adelaide Ann Procter

Music conducted by - Carl Davis

Soundtrack Producer - Carl Davis

Soundtrack Executive Producers - Mike Leigh, Simon Mortimer, and, Mary Ann Slim

Orchestra Producer - Paul Wing

Musical Director - Gary Yershon

Cornet Player - Ian Balmain

Piano - John Constable

Harmonium - Shelagh Sutherland

Track Listing

1. Behold The Lord High Executioner (from The Mikado) - Ko Ko/Mr George Grossmith and men (Martin Savage, and male chorus)

2. Overture (from The Mikado) - Orchestra (conducted by Carl Davis)

3. Three Little Maids From School Are We (from The Mikado) - Pitti Sing/Miss Jessie Bond, Yum Yum/Miss Leonora Braham, and, Peep-Bo/Miss Sybil Grey with women (Dorothy Atkinson, Shirley Henderson, and, Cathy Sara, with female chorus)

4. Overture (from Princess Ida) - Orchestra (conducted by Carl Davies)

5. If You Give Me Your Attention (from Princess Ida) - King Gama/Mr George Grossmith and chorus (Martin Savage and chorus)

6. Paris Galop (from The Grand Duke) - Orchestra (conducted by Carl Davis)

7.

a. Mi-Ya-Sa-Ma (from The Mikado) - Chorus

b. From Every Kind Of Man Obedience I Expect (from The Mikado) - The Mikado/Mr Richard Temple and Katisha/Miss Rosina Brandram, with chorus (Timothy Spall and Louise Gold, with chorus)

c. A More Humane Mikado (from The Mikado) - The Mikado/Mr Richard Temple with chorus (Timothy Spall with chorus)

8. But Soft.../Why, Where Be Oi (from The Sorcerer) - Aline/Miss Leonora Braham, Alexis/Mr Durwood Lely, Mr Wells/Mr George Grossmith, and, Chorus (Shirley Henderson, Kevin McKidd, Martin Savage, and chorus)

9. Alone (from The Yeoman Of The Guard) - Orchestra (conducted by Carl Davis)

10. The Criminal Cried As He Dropped Him Down (from The Mikado) - Pitti Sing/Miss Jessie Bond, Pooh-Bah/Mr Rutland Barrington, and, Ko Ko/Mr George Grossmith, with chorus (Dorothy Atkinson, Vincent Franklin, and, Martin Savage, with chorus

11. Overture (from The Yeoman Of The Guard) -Orchestra (conducted by Carl Davis)

12. A Wand’ring Minstrel (from The Mikado) - Nanki Poo/Mr Durwood Lely and Pish-Tush/Mr Frederick Bovill, with men (Kevin McKidd and Michael Simkins, with male chorus)

13. The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze (from The Mikado) - Yum Yum/Miss Leonora Braham (Shirley Henderson)

14. End Titles (from The Pirates Of Penzance and The Grand Duke) - Orchestra (Conducted by Carl Davis)

15. Incantation (from The Sorcerer) - Aline/Miss Leonora Braham, Alexis/Mr Durwood Lely, and Mr Wells/Mr George Grossmith, with chorus (Shirley Henderson, Kevin McKidd, and, Martin Savage, with chorus)

16. The Fitting (from The Gondoliers) - Cornet (Ian Balmain)

17. The Lost Chord (words by Adelaide Ann Proctor) - Mrs Fanny Ronalds with Piano and Harmonium (Eleanor David with John Constable and Shelagh Sutherland)

18. The Mikado Finale (from The Mikado) - Pitti Sing/Miss Jessie Bond, Pooh-Bah/Mr Rutland Barrington, Katisha/Miss Rosina Brandram, Yum Yum/Miss Leonora Braham, Nanki Poo/Mr Durwood Lely, Peep-Bo/Miss Sybil Grey, Pish-Tush/Mr Frederick Bovill, and, The Mikado/Mr Richard Temple, with chorus (Dorothy Atkinson, Vincent Franklin, Louise Gold, Shirley Henderson, Kevin McKidd, Cathy Sara, Michael Simkins, and, Timothy Spall, with chorus

18. Resolutions (from The Long Day Closes) - Orchestra (conducted by Carl Davis)

All the performers on this album do of course appear in the film Topsy Turvy, singing the very numbers they are singing on this album.

It is perhaps worth mentioning that chorus member Anna Francolini is quite possibly only on if and when the female chorus are involved in tracks 3, 7, 10, and 18. She inadvertently managed to write herself out of half the film.

Having played the actress playing Peep-Bo in Topsy Turvy, Cathy Sara went on the play the most important of the three little maids, when her character in The Archers, Lauren, one of Tom Archer’s girl friends, played Yum Yum in an Ambridge version of The Mikado.

Louise Gold and Simon Butteriss has previously appeared in the G&S spoof The Metropolitan Mikado (in which Louise sang a number called Mitsubishi Marubeni which was a spoof on From Every Kind Of Man Obedience I Expect), and a concert of highlights from Ratepayers' Iolanthe & Metropolitan Mikado

Louise Gold and Kevin Walton had previously appeared together in Assassins and the Lost Musicals production of By Jupiter.

Louise Gold and Wayne Cater went on to appear in Man Of La Mancha

Louise Gold and Michael Simkins went on to become members of Mamma Mia’s second London cast.

Heather Craney, Dorothy Atkinson, and, Louise Gold have gone on to appear together on the CD The Wartime Picnics.

Louise Gold has gone on to cross paths with the legacy of Miss Rosina Brandram again in 2003, by appearing in a production of The Gondoliers (as The Duchess Of Plaza-Toro - the role originated by Miss Brandram)

Musical Director Gary Yershon has gone on to write the book for a musical version of The Water Babies in whose inaugural production Louise Gold originated the leading ladies role.

Review

by Emma Shane, November 2002

What a lush album. I honestly never knew that Gilbert & Sullivan could sound so good! If you like good luscious musicals, but usually consider G&S to be too dull and boring to be your cup of tea, then this album with Carl Davis’s wonderfully rich conducting might well make you think again. It also has the tremendous bonus that all the singers on it are very definitely Musical-Comedy-Actors not Classical-Singers, so they never venture into ‘Concert English’ (actually there are some serious classical singers, such as Rosalind Plowright, who will make an effort. to try not to do too much ‘Concert English’ when they do showtunes, but they are few and far between), and in my humble opinion Gilbert & Sullivan is best treated as Musical-Theatre, not Grand Opera.

There are many lovely numbers on this CD, and some really terrific performances. It is perhaps worth singling out Kevin McKidd and Michael Simikins’s excellent performance of A Wand’ring Minstrel, since it is a classic song and very well done. Onto another legend, there cannot be a better or clearer rendition of Three Little Maids From School Are We than that performed here by Dorothy Atkinson, Shirley Henderson, and, Cathy Sara. While as for The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze, there has rarely been a performance as good Shirley Henderson’s for simple sweetness and clarity. In fact the only performance I can think of that possibly bettered it, was when Miss Louise Gold (heard on this album as Katisha) elected to sing it in her cabaret act.

If there is one performer who truly stands out on this album it is probably Martin Savage playing Mr George Grossmith in several guises. Though his performance as Ko Ko from The Mikado is very good, and his one in the title role in The Sorcerer is also excellent, his greatest triumph must surely be his performance as King Gama in If You Give Me Your Attention from the flop Princess Ida. It is one of the most hilarious songs on the album, and here it is sung by an actor who knows how to do it justice, by singing it with a great deal of believability, and as a comedy song. Other comic highlights include Timothy Spall’s performance of A More Humane Mikado, where he really brings out W.S. Gilbert’s delightful lyrics, and of course The Mikado Finale.

But good though all these songs are, there is one that just has to be my favourite, and the one I really can’t help playing endlessly, Katisha and The Mikado’s spectacular duet From Every Kind Of Man Obedience I Expect. Here Timothy Spall acquits himself well enough as The Mikado, but is overshadowed by a powerful duetist in the form of Louise Gold as Katisha. To borrow/adapt a phrase (of W.S. Gilbert’s, originally about Miss Rosina Brandram), Louise’s glorious voice rolls out as full bodied burgundy rolls down; which of course is exactly what it’s meant to do!

To my mind this album is worth having for Track 7, and in particularly From Every Kind Of Man Obedience I Expect, alone. But it is also a gorgeously lush, accessible recording of several classic Gilbert & Sullivan pieces, all of which make it a good addition to treat oneself to.

Links about Topsy Turvy (Soundtrack album)

Topsy Turvy’s Official site: http://www.topsyturvymovie.com/ (incidentally, a lot of notable cast members, including Louise Gold, do not actually get a mention)

The G&S Discography: http://www.cris.com/~oakapple/gasdisc/mdtopsy.htm Topsy Turvy’s entry. A great site contains various pictures from the film, including one of Mike Leigh directing Timothy Spall and Louise Gold.

Cast albuim.org database’s entry for this album: http://www.castalbums.org/recordings/577

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