Topsy-Turvy (1999)

Directed by Mike Leigh; produced by Simon Channing Williams

By 1885, the partnership of W. S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) and Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner) had created numerous operatic successes at the Savoy Theatre, making them immensely popular and wealthy. However, Princess Ida, their latest work, is not what previous operas had been; critics are luke-warm and attendance is down. Much worse, Gilbert seems to have run out of imagination, and Sullivan longs to escape the frivolity of their productions and compose something meaningful. Despite the determination of the Savoy’s owner, Richard D’Oyly Carte (Ron Cook) and his highly capable secretary, Miss Lenoir (Wendy Nottingham), the star duo of the West End is about to break up.

Topsy-Turvy may be the best depiction of the production of a stage-work ever filmed. There have been some good ones, but the amount of detail, the range covered, and the story - or stories - told in this movie are phenomenal. It’s as if the narrative, which deals with The Mikado from inception to the end of its first performance, was conceived as a means of describing every aspect of a Victorian-era stage-play.

The performances are excellent, from top to bottom. Almost every character existed in real life. Though the centre-piece is the partnership of Gilbert and Sullivan, we see their separate lives (their collaboration was professional, and they appeared to be little more than friendly acquaintances beyond that), as well as those of actors, managers, relatives and loved ones.

The script, by the director, flawlessly provides great insight into personalities and habits, often through no more than a few minutes of screen-time. A good example is when Fanny Ronalds (Eleanor David), a leading singer, hosts an afternoon’s musical entertainment, and sings Sullivan’s ‘Lost Chord’; this is a reference to her talent, her social life and her association with a particular song, all in one scene.

The various actors of the day, George Grossmith (Martin Savage), Richard Temple (Timothy Spall), Jessie Bond (Dorothy Atkinson) and others, are brought to life with their unique personalities and concerns. Each is a professional, worried about giving as good a performance as possible, but also about their careers and personal lives. These are happy, sad, dour, carefree, funny and humourless people, each ‘serious about their craft’, as might be said today.

A movie two and two-thirds hours long might seem lengthy enough to pack in all it needs to say and show, but what is surprising is not only how smoothly and quickly the time goes by, but how much is put into the film, without anything being rushed at all. For instance, we see not only full-cast rehearsals, but also Gilbert going over the minutiae of the script with two or three actors in a pokey basement room, in which individual words in the play’s dialogue are debated.

Gilbert was a very detail-oriented writer. For H.M.S. Pinafore, he had a scale-model of a naval warship built for him to study, and for The Mikado, he worked closely with the costumer on authentic Japanese dress, and with visiting Japanese men and women on proper deportment. Director Leigh is just as exacting. The authenticity reminds me of that in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Something that is essential to the enjoyment of Topsy-Turvy, I think, is how Leigh treats the times and the people. The Victorian era is often ridiculed for its morals and supposed hypocrisy (I’m sure our own epoch will be dealt with similarly in a short while). But when Durward Lely (Kevin McKidd), the respected lead actor, objects vehemently to the shortness of the Japanese gown he must wear, calling it ‘indecent’, even ‘obscene’, Gilbert first reasons with him, then orders him, to wear it. At no point is Lely’s concern laughed at, nor is the viewer invited to snicker.

Not to have taken the Victorian setting seriously would have created a disaster, no matter how seriously the subject was treated. Indeed, the secret of Topsy-Turvy’s success may be manifold but could be summed up in the word ‘respect’: respect for the characters, the setting, the art, the process of creating. Just as the use of detail reflects Gilbert’s, so too does any chastisement of Victorian ways and means: gently, and while nonetheless living by those ways and means.

Topsy-Turvy is enjoyable from pretty much any aspect. Most importantly, however, it is an involving and entertaining movie of high quality.