Bruce Montgomery - Reflections

Reflections on
Bruce Montgomery

I had done a few shows with Rose Valley when I started attending performances by the Gilbert & Sullivan Players in Philadelphia. They looked like the kind of company I wanted to join, so I sent an inquiry and was invited to audition. Subsequently I did several shows with them, enjoyed their limited rehearsal schedule and their professionalism, and got to know such people as the amazing Bruce Montgomery, his sister Liz, Coulson Conn, C Watson, Sally Hansell and Bob Binkley. When Bruce folded the company, I joked that it was because I had tried out for a principal role, but was a bit sad that my G&S-performing days seemed to be over. A couple of years later, I got a message from C saying that "Gilbert and Sullivan are alive and well and living in West Chester!" - that is, Bruce was starting to direct the new company in Chester County. I was so glad to renew my acquaintances and experience live Gilbert-and-Sullivan-making again with a highly-accomplished and enthusiastic new group. But as before, it was the knowledge, understanding, love and respect which Bruce Montgomery showed for the repertoire that made the Society's productions so satisfying. I know that now that he is gone, productions will go on, as he certainly would have wanted, but I think we all know he can never really be replaced.

-- Stu Baird

I came to this country in the bicentennial month of the bicentennial year, already having been exposed to an annual dosage of Gilbert & Sullivan performances in my native Sheffield. I can't remember if it was the first, second, or third year that I was here but I do remember discovering that there were G&S perfomances being produced twice a year in Philadelphia at the dollhouse sized Plays and Players Theatre on Delancey Place and I do know that I discovered it before I discovered The Savoy. I duly trekked down there with several American friends in tow and enjoyed the performance but my memory does not let me ascertain what the show was. I do remember leaving the theatre to see a large group of people all boisterously gathered round the smiling figure of a man in a bow tie. I asked someone who that man was, of course it was Monty. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would have the distinct honor of being the MC for the GSSCC tribute paid to Bruce Montgomery between the Saturday performances of Utopia Limited in 2007, let alone being a member of the cast of the last two GSSCC shows directed by Monty. I never knew the man like many of our membership knew him but I did recognise what Monty, the artistic giant, had done for the promotion of the works Gilbert & Sullivan in the USA and I never lost my admiration for that. Truly a renaissance man and probably the only person I've met who I can honestly say was larger than life. It is my privelage and honor that our lives were intermingled for a short while in the creation of musical joy. I'm sure that wherever he is right now Monty is not being afraid to be magnificent.

-- Patrick Shepherd

When I first came to the Philadelphia region sixteen and a half years ago, had someone asked me if I knew who Bruce Montgomery is, I'd have likely said something along the lines of "The great-grandson of whom they named Montgomery County after." I do seem to remember an article about him in the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER appearing after I'd been here a few weeks. But I probably just ran right past it...or it past me...

Then, in early April of that year, I saw a listing in the "Weekend" section of the paper about an upcoming production of (as they put it) "Gilbert and Sullivan's rarely performed opera THESPIS". Montgomery's name probably wasn't mentioned in that--and if it had been, it would have been because he was directing (and conducting) the performance, not because he'd written the music for it (barring "Climbing over rocky mountain" and "Little maid of Arcadee", of course). I went to see the show...and more likely than not, I probably figured that was the end of the story.

Who knew that a little over eight years later, I'd meet Bruce Montgomery...and more to the point, I'd appear in another production of the same opera I'd seen in 1992? And that he'd direct me in three other shows (PRINCESS IDA, late 2001; HMS PINAFORE, 2002; YEOMEN, 2004). But apart from that, I learned that he'd been a performer, director, conductor, composer, writer, artist, teacher, and a few more things longer than I'd been alive. And that he probably ranked as the Philadelphia area's leading authority on the subject of Gilbert and Sullivan. And you had to respect the man for that.

There are, no doubt, a lot of people on the net who knew him longer than I did. There are people who could write long, flowery tributes; there are probably enough stories about him to fill several books (and that'd be *before* I threw my tuppence-haypenny in!)

But I couldn't let this pass without saying something... I do remember him giving me grief because I'm not a very good dancer (or at least I certainly wasn't when we first met: I did improve somewhat since). But I realized--maybe not at first, but eventually--that he took the material very seriously, and he wanted the best show he could get on the stage. Some people believe that all directors are perfectionists: I suppose that's true to a certain extent. With Monty, though, I think it was more a case of his believing that there was only one way to perform G&S--you either do it right or you don't do it at all. The material demanded it, so he did. And I have to admit, he had a point.

After PINAFORE, I remember saying to him "Thanks for putting up with me." I don't remember what his response was... But now that we've lost him, I want to repeat the sentiment, but in slightly different form:

Thank you for showing all of us what the works of Gilbert and Sullivan could be, when done properly. Thank you for bringing the best out of all of us. And thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

The G&S Society of Chester County just won't be the same without him. Nor will the G&S community as a whole. But as long as we remember the last words he spoke in the green room before every performance-- "Don't be afraid to be *magnificent*!"-- we can keep the legacy going.

-- Leonard Pinsker

Return to Monty's obituary

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