History Creator / GilbertAndSullivan

** Contemporary cracks at the contemporary Liberal Party are often updated to be aimed at the modern Liberal Democrats -- which works surprisingly well as both have a reputation of accepting members regardless of political principles, or not possessing any.

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 - 29 May 1911) and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 - 22 November 1900) were a {{Victorian|London}} duo who together wrote a number of hugely popular and influential comic operas, which served as forerunners of TheMusical (most people today think of them as musicals), Gilbert writing the book and lyrics (what's known as a librettist, because he writes the ''libretto'', or "little book" in English), and Sullivan the scores. Their most famous works are the so-called Savoy operas (from the Savoy Theatre where their operas were produced by entrepreneur Richard D'Oyly Carte), stretching from ''Thespis'' in 1871 to ''The Gondoliers'' in 1889. The partnership then broke up, partly because of the legendary irascibility of Gilbert, partly because Sullivan ({{e|xecutiveMeddling}}ncouraged by none other than UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria'''!'''), wished to devote himself to serious music, mostly over a carpet. Two later works, ''Utopia, Ltd.'' and ''The Grand Duke'', came after the reunion of the team; they have not generally been considered successes.

Added to the canon is ''Pineapple Poll'', a lovely comic ballet scored in 1950-51 by Sir Charles Mackerras. Mackerras wove melodies from the first twelve G+S collaborations with a bit of ''Cox and Box'' and some of Sullivan's "Overture di Ballo" to the story of Gilbert's Bab Ballad "The Bumboat Woman's Tale" to create a delightful work of nautical silliness that pays loving tribute to the duo's best work.

* NoFourthWall

* RuleOfFunny: ''Everything.'' You can bet if any of these tropes is invoked, it's likely just because it's funny.
** Maaaayybe in terms of the libretto and music. As far as stage business goes, WordOfGod explicitly bars RuleOfFunny. George Grossmith, the original Ko-Ko in ''Theatre/TheMikado'', protested having a gag cut because he got a big laugh - Gilbert replied "So you would if you sat on a pork pie."

* TheAnnotatedEdition: One was written by Creator/IsaacAsimov, no less, covering all fourteen of the musicals and going very deep into Gilbert's literary references and allusions.

* EvolvingLyrics: Many of their songs, especially the MajorGeneralSong and "I've Got a Little List", have lines that can be easily updated whenever the previous lyrics become too outdated for a modern audience to be expected to understand the references.

* RefrainFromAssuming: As was common at the time, effectively ''every'' song is named after its first line, not its refrain. The only exceptions are the ones where the refrain doubles as the first line (such as "I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major General").
** However, Gilbert himself, in his 1890 collection of lyrics, ''Songs of a Savoyard'', gave each song a short descriptive title instead, ''e.g.'', "The Major General's Song" (for "I am the very model of a modern major-general") or "Eheu Fugaces—!" (for "Time was when Love and I were well acquainted").

Arguably, ''The Martyr of Antioch'' (1880, sacred cantata), Sullivan's setting of a poem by Millman, could also be included in this list, as Gilbert abridged and rearranged it, wrote some new material (including a couple of songs) to replace what was cut and simplify over-long scenes, and generally worked to make the libretto count as a good example of AdaptationDistillation.