It examines a fictional day in 1890 when the Victorian era composer and dramatist, while embroiled in their 1890 "carpet quarrel", are requested by Queen Victoria to present a revue of songs from their operas on short notice.
[2][4] The play was produced by the Phoenix Theater Company at the Performing Arts Center of the State University of New York at Purchase in September 1993.
In December 1890, near the end of their collaboration, and still estranged by their famous carpet quarrel, W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan have neither seen nor spoken with each other in months.
Sullivan has been ill and has missed most of the rehearsals; he is in love with pretty Violet Russell, a young soprano of whom Gilbert disapproves.
To make matters worse, Sullivan has invited Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh (a son of the Queen), to join the cast.