In the entire 65-year history of the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island, only one person has been a member longer than Gayden Wren, who in September marked his 43rd year as a member of the company.
Now Wren, a singer and actor best known to Long Island audiences as the country singer Tennessee Walt, is telling his own story in a one-night-only, one-man show, Gilbert & Sullivan and Me, to be presented at Westy Self Storage in New Hyde Park on Saturday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m.
“People have come up to me after Walt shows, where I’d mention that I’ve done Gilbert & Sullivan for 43 years, and told me that they were Gilbert & Sullivan fans too,” Wren said. “They didn’t see how you got from Gilbert & Sullivan to country music. I’ve told them that the story of me and Gilbert & Sullivan was too long to tell, because it was basically the story of my life, but that it was definitely an unusual and interesting one, at least to me.”
Now that story is being told through Gilbert & Sullivan and Me, which Wren has described as “a show 43 years in the making.” It was previously seen in Rochester, NY, and in Austin, Texas, in 2007 and 2016 respectively, but never before as a full-length program and never before in Wren’s native Long Island.
“It’s a musical program featuring 16 songs, not one of which is actually from the Gilbert & Sullivan operas per se, but all of which relate in some way to the Savoy operas and the lifetime I’ve spent working on them,” Wren said. “People can expect to hear lyrics by such masters as Bobby Braddock, Earl K. Brent, Howard Dietz, Rudyard Kipling, Geoff Mack, Cole Porter, Miriam Walowitz and, yes, W.S. Gilbert, and lots of lyrics by me. I’ll be doing a song from ‘A Gilbert & Sullivan Christmas Carol,’ a song from the Yiddish version of H.M.S. Pinafore and, especially for Walt fans, two songs associated with four members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.”
Joining Wren for a few numbers will be his wife, singer Sara Holliday, with Thomas Shepard accompanying on piano.
“This probably isn’t a show for someone who’s never heard of Gilbert & Sullivan,” Wren said, “but for anyone who knows and loves the Savoy operas, this ought to be a once-in-a-lifetime event. I hope they’ll have as much fun on Saturday night as I will.”
Westy Self Storage is located at 2400 Marcus Ave. in New Hyde Park.
Admission is $15, with all proceeds benefiting the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island and its 2019 production of The Gondoliers.
For further information, visit www.gilbertandsullivanli.com.
