For generations, arts patrons have celebrated the efforts of a pair of grassroots organizations in bringing a diverse theater repertoire to Bergen. With nearly 150 years of quality performances and community outreach between them, the two groups are celebrating milestones of their own.

The Ridgewood Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company recently marked its 70th anniversary with a dual production of Trial by Jury and H.M.S. Pinafore. And in Oradell, the Bergen County Players, one of the oldest community theater groups in the country, is commemorating its 75th season of curtain calls with a show representing each decade since the troupe was founded.

The Ridgewood Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company

A step into Barbra Lewis’ Ridgewood home is truly a look at both the present and history of the Ridgewood Gilbert & Sullivan (G&S) Opera Company. Newly created and neatly hung costumes are in the dining room, waiting to be fitted on actors, while in the living room, photos of past performances are displayed on all the walls and over the mantel.

“I was only 4 when the company started,” recalls Lewis of the group her parents, Kay and Jack Edson, created in 1937. Barbra grew up in the Ridgewood Avenue house; her sister, Marjory Lewis (Lewis is coincidentally a married name for both), vividly recalls sneaking downstairs after bedtime to eavesdrop on rehearsals held in this very living room. Like Barbra, Marjory grew up singing, and eventually played many starring roles in the group’s productions.

Kay and Jack Edson founded G&S with Oliver and May Hall, friends who shared their enthusiasm for the Victorian duo’s popular light operas. With a starting contribution of just $50 per couple, the four launched what would become one of the oldest continuously performing Gilbert & Sullivan companies in the country. The Halls eventually moved on, but the Edsons continued to head the productions until their deaths in the 1970s.

The company’s first program made the nascent group’s objective clear: “to present to music-lovers of this vicinity not only the old favorite G&S operas, such as Pinafore and Mikado, but also the less well-known, but equally delightful, operas of the famous collaborators.”

That objective has been met with a repertoire that alternates “hits” like Pirates of Penzance with less well-known shows like Iolanthe. From among the 14 operettas penned by librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, Jack Edson refused to name a favorite; when pressed, he would simply demur, “the one we’re working on now.”

In the early days of the company, the topsy-turvy world of a Gilbert & Sullivan setting was occasionally mirrored in the mechanics of production on a shoestring budget. One memorable mishap, in the summer of 1948, concerned a performance of Pirates at the Waldwick grammar school. Barbra Lewis remembers it all: Her mother was starring as Mabel in the show, just across the border from Midland Park, when that town’s rain-delayed Fourth of July fireworks started unexpectedly.

“All went well until part way through Act II,” Barbra explains. “The soprano and tenor were singing a tender love duet when, all of a sudden, the fireworks started. ‘Ah, leave me not to pine – Bang! – alone and desolate – Bang! Bang!’ How Mother and [castmate] Al Brothers got through that duet without breaking up, I’ll never know,” she adds wistfully.

The company now
The family tradition of Gilbert & Sullivan begun with Kay and Jack Edson has continued with both Lewis sisters. Barbra until last season; currently, she’s the costume chairman. “The company taught me how to sew, and I’ve made quite a slew of my own costumes,” she says, showing off several that she has just pressed. Her daughter, Terry, was also a dedicated cast member before moving to New England. Marjory, who is pursuing dramatic roles with the Bergen County Players, auditions for some productions, sings in a few, and generally lends a hand whenever she can. It’s no surprise that the talented Barbra and Marjory Lewis, who were literally born into the company, are considered G&S royalty. And as with any kingdom, such as in several of these fanciful operettas, this one has flourished by continuing to attract loyal subjects who truly love what they do.

One pair of such loyalists is Mike and Jan Wiley of Hawthorne. Neither is a singer, but Mike was a Gilbert & Sullivan fan long before he signed up. “Thirteen years ago, I saw The Mikado twice, because I was so enthralled with it,” he remembers. Seeing a notice in the program seeking volunteers, he made a tentative phone call, and was thrilled to be invited to join.

“They put me on the stage crew,” he recalls. “I have a strong back.” His involvement quickly deepened, ultimately drawing in his wife, as well. Mike eventually ran for the board of governors, and has been the company’s business manager for the past eight years. Jan has had several jobs, including stage manager; she is now in charge of photography. The couple’s hard work and tenacity have been rewarded with non-speaking roles – holding banners, spears and axes on stage. “If there is a role that doesn’t require any singing or dancing talent – I’m the guy,” says Wiley with a laugh. “I’m happy to be so accepted by the group.”

Current company president Bill Ramey is another lifelong devotee of Gilbert & Sullivan. Ramey joined the group relatively late in life, becoming a performer only after retiring from his career as a transplant surgeon at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City. The longtime Tenafly resident grew up listening to the popular librettos, but hadn’t been active in theater since his high school days in Virginia. “My maternal grandmother and her husband set up the Gilbert & Sullivan Players at Duke University,” says Ramey, thrilled to have come full circle back to his family’s musical roots. In the 70th-anniversary performance of H.M.S. Pinafore, Ramey played one of the comic leads, the evil sailor Dick Deadeye; as president, he looks forward to a continued expansion of the Bergen group’s audience base.

The company is also dedicated to bringing music to those who can’t attend their performances, such as patients at the Actors’ Home in Englewood and the Veterans Memorial Home in Paramus. “For us, it’s good for warming up and polishing, to work with a live audience,” notes Ramey. “We were very appreciated recently at the Actor’s Home.”

The younger set presents a different incentive. Getting children interested in music has always been one of the company’s goals. In the early years, the Edson family ran a children’s theater in and around Ridgewood; now, to encourage families to bring their children to shows, the company offers free admission to those 12 and under. It’s that next generation, Ridgewood Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company leaders know, that will enable their beloved troupe to prosper for another 70 years.

Ruddigore will be presented the first week in June at the Ho-Ho-Kus Public School, on Lloyd Road in Ho-Ho-Kus. For more information, visit www.ridgewoodGandS.com, or call (973) 423-0300.


Bergen County Players

A ghost is said to roam Oradell’s Little Firehouse Theatre, home since 1949 to the Bergen County Players. No one knows whether the visitor to the labyrinth of rooms filled with props, scripts, costumes and the remnants of hundreds of shows is a former actor, patron or firefighter, but many in the company are true believers in its existence.

“I haven’t had any personal experience,” says actress Marjory Lewis (daughter of the Ridgewood Gilbert & Sullivan Opera founders), “but I don’t not believe.” Ghosts aside, the spirit of thousands of actors, of set builders, costume makers and others who make up the backbone of the backstage, is alive in this theater company. Founded in 1932 at the Hackensack YMCA by a group who joined together to produce a diverse repertoire of quality plays, the Players counts among it early founders Helen Burke Travolta, mother of movie star John Travolta, who passed on her love of theater to her son.

At first, the company produced their shows in high school auditoriums, later setting up shop at The Barn Theater on Howland Avenue in River Edge. But a fire in 1944 burned that structure to the ground, leaving the group temporarily homeless; the Players had no choice but to stage shows in other troupes’ venues. That situation lasted until 1949, when the group was able to lease its current site from the Borough of Oradell, which had just built a new firehouse.

Standing atop the stage and looking out toward the theater entrance, it’s easy to imagine fire engines taking up the space where the audience now occupies 210 seats. The red-brick exterior also hearkens back to those early days. The modern computerized lighting and sound systems, however, provide a first-rate theater experience.

 “We really function at a professional level,” says Jason Lewis, Marjory’s husband and fellow actor. He arrived at Bergen County Players (BCP) after marrying Marjory and moving to Ridgewood. The Lewises are representative of many BCP members: They are a couple, and each is an experienced actor. Both enjoyed professional careers as card-carrying Actors’ Equity members, with roles in Broadway shows (for Marjory) and movies (Jason).

There is also a long list of nationally recognized actors for whom BCP proved an early training ground. These include Robert Sean Leonard, who grew up in Ridgewood and is well known for his work in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society, and on the current FOX-TV hit House, as well as Waldwick native Allison Smith, who went on to star in the original Broadway production of Annie, and on various TV shows. Non-actors in the BCP orbit have also achieved more than a little fame: Best-selling mystery writer Mary Higgins Clark honed her writing chops in Oradell, making the trip from her Saddle River home to craft press releases back in the late 1950s.

Looking ahead
Besides acting at BCP, Jason Lewis has also been an assistant prop master, lighting operator, painter and set builder. That versatility is the norm for many company members, who pitch in whenever needed, according to the group’s president, Chris McVey of Ho-Ho-Kus.

“Our hope is that even if you are starring on stage one month, you are also downstairs in your free time, helping build a set for another show,” he says, adding, “We have a great core membership.” 

McVey came to the group in 1999, at age 30. He had been modeling and acting on TV shows and in commercials, but he was looking for a local company that would allow him to sing as well as act.

“I auditioned, and was cast in a musical revue called Closer than Ever that first year,” he remembers. McVey’s next tryout led to the lead role in the musical City of Angels, in 2001. This is his sixth year on the board, with the last two spent as president.

“It’s a viable alternative to Broadway – not in every effort – but more often than not, in the quality of our productions,” he points out, noting proudly, “I’ve been in shows where people have said, ‘I saw it on Broadway but I liked your version better.’”

To celebrate their “Diamond Jubilee” season, as the 75th is being called, the group has been performing a show from each of its seven decades, beginning last September with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I, winner in 1952 of five Tony Awards. The season will end in June with Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue, which scored two Tonys in 1972. Each year, BCP produces seven main-stage shows, along with at least two shorter second stage programs. The December production is always family-friendly, and usually, a musical; last year’s was Seussical.

The mix of drama, comedy and musicals attracts a diverse audience, but it also makes for some sold-out shows. And since the actors – and almost everybody else – work for free, the profits from ticket sales often allow for some leftover cash; local nonprofits such as Shelter Our Sisters, the Center for Food Action and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation are the beneficiaries.

Company largesse doesn’t stop there. BCP also donates tickets to many organizations to be used for fund-raising, and BCP members frequently participate in charity events across Bergen. When Community Blood Services in Paramus sent a bloodmobile to downtown Oradell, BCP members dressed as “medical” personnel from their production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to lend a hand passing out juice and cookies to donors. And each year, the troupe sponsors a float in Oradell’s Fourth of July parade; this past summer, they were actually the parade honorees, with their president serving as grand marshal.

According to McVey, the community involvement and two other key things will keep BCP moving forward for another 75 years. “It’s the dedication of the membership, and the continued quality of the performances. If we don’t do a good job, people aren’t going to come back,” he proclaims. With this type of conviction, mirrored throughout BCP, the company that started with a little group of dedicated theater lovers and has grown to more than 300 members will keep the Little Firehouse Theatre packed with happy audiences for many decades to come.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest will be presented weekends through April 13. The Prisoner of Second Avenue will be presented weekends from May 3 through June 1. For more information, visit www.bcplayers.org, or call (201) 261-4200.