Choraliers

Bethany's Choraliers present a lyric-theatre production each February. Beginning rehearsals in the fall semester, Choraliers typically has 40 to 60 participants.

HMS Pinafore | 2013

The story takes place aboard the British ship HMS Pinafore. The captain’s daughter, Josephine, is in love with a lower-class sailor, Ralph Rackstraw, although her father intends her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. She abides by her father’s wishes at first, but Sir Joseph’s advocacy of the equality of humankind encourages Ralph and Josephine to overturn conventional social order. They declare their love for each other and eventually plan to elope. The captain discovers this plan, but, as in many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a surprise disclosure changes things dramatically near the end of the story..  

Very Good Eddie | 2012

Music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Schuyler Green, and book by Philip Bartholomae and Guy Boltone.

Very Good Eddie is a rollicking comedy replete with romantic misadventures. The adventures begin when two honeymooning couples cross paths and accidentally switch partners. Chaos ensues with songs and laughs in abundance and at last true love and order are restored.  

Oh, Kay!  | 2011

Music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and the book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse

This musical comedy is set the Roaring Twenties, era of the Jazz Age and American prohibition. English bootleggers, the Duke of Durham and his sister Lady Kay, have hidden their illegal bounty in the cellar of Jimmy Winter’s Long Island estate while he was away. His return precipitates a series of mishaps, mistaken identities, and surprising romance.

Mikado | 2010  

This Gilbert and Sullivan classic is set in the fictitious city of Titipu, Japan. The story follows the misadventures of Nanki-Poo, son of the Mikado himself but disguised as a wandering minstrel, as he searches for his love, Yum-Yum. His quest is greatly complicated by Yum-Yum’s impending marriage to Ko-Ko who under bizarre circumstances has been elevated from cheap tailor to Lord High Executioner. The young lovers are further frustrated by the elderly Katisha, a member of the Mikado’s court determined to marry Nanki-Poo herself. At last, after many twists and turns, love triumphs and the city of Titipu rejoices.