Light Opera of Manhattan
Founded by William Mount-Burke, LOOM's first long-term home was in the Jan Hus theatre from the late 1960s to 1975, where it succeeded another small light opera company, the American Savoyards.
Led by conductor-director Mount-Burke, principal comedian Raymond Allen and choreographer/stage manager Jerry Gotham, the company mentored many young actors and singers who went on to careers on Broadway or elsewhere in theatre or music.
There it expanded its repertoire beyond Gilbert and Sullivan to American and continental operettas, such as those of Victor Herbert, Rudolph Friml, Franz Lehár, Sigmund Romberg, Jacques Offenbach and Johann Strauss II.
After this, led by Allen and Gotham, with music director Todd Ellison, the company played in a series of theatres around New York that challenged its ability to keep its Upper East Side audience, and it was forced constantly to raise funds.
In 1969, the company moved into the 247-seat basement gymnasium of The Jan Hus House on East 74th Street, previously the home of Dorothy Raedler's American Savoyards, intending to play a limited engagement.
The pay for the non-union actors was nominal, but many young actor/singers who aspired to be full-time professionals were able to receive training and could work their way up from the ensemble to featured roles in the course of a year.
[2] Many future New York City Opera and Broadway professionals started out at LOOM, including writer/director Gerard Alessandrini (Forbidden Broadway); Craig Schulman (Les Misérables);[6] Robert Cuccioli (Jekyll & Hyde); Stephen O'Mara, opera singer; Penny Orloff, City Opera and Broadway;[7] Carolyne Mas, recording artist; Susan Marshall, recording artist and songwriter; Michael Connolly (Amadeus);[8] Larry Raiken (Woman of the Year, Big River, and Follies);[9] and Joan Lader, recipient of the 2016 Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre[10] and vocal coach to numerous performers, such as Madonna,[11] Sutton Foster[12] and Frederica von Stade.
[14] The orchestra consisted of two players: pianist Brian Molloy, a graduate of Juilliard, who played every score by heart, and Mount-Burke himself, covering the organ and timpani, while conducting the performance.
Its first non-G&S show was Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta, with guest artist Joan Sena-Grande in the title role, to open its tenure at the Eastside Playhouse in 1975.
[2] Friml's The Vagabond King and Rose-Marie; Sigmund Romberg's The Student Prince, The Desert Song, The New Moon; Herbert's Naughty Marietta, The Red Mill, Mlle.
Modiste and The Fortune Teller; Jacques Offenbach's The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein; and Johann Strauss II's A Night in Venice, and others became favorites of the company.
Babes was a perennial hit for LOOM, offering parents an alternative to Radio City's annual Christmas show, and Victor Herbert's beloved tunes delighted older audience members.
For example, in 1980 Mount-Burke directed the first professional production of Arthur Sullivan and B. C. Stephenson's The Zoo given anywhere in the world since 1879, together with Cox and Box and Trial by Jury, repeating the triple bill the following year.
[24] During these seasons, despite Mount-Burke's declining health, the company attracted high-quality professional singers for their casts, generally improved costumes and sets, earned good reviews and enjoyed a seemingly secure financial future.
"[16] This period in the company's history is lampooned in the 2003 comic novel, Jewish Thighs on Broadway: Misadventures of a Little Trouper by Penny Orloff, who played Josephine in Pinafore, Mabel in Pirates, and the title role in Iolanthe in the summer of 1980.
[27] LOOM transferred first to The Norman Thomas High School Auditorium, which was too large for its intimate productions and too distant from the Upper East Side neighborhood where it had built its reputation.
[27] Although the company's ticket sales improved there, even sellout crowds were insufficient to generate sufficient revenues to stay ahead of the expenses of paying the large casts needed for light opera.
[31][32] After more fundraising, Jean Dalrymple brought the company back together in 1987, and LOOM resumed its full-time production schedule at the 299-seat Playhouse 91, returning to the Upper East Side.
