It is the latter part of the Nineteenth Century. London is a major business metropolis with a population that is constantly crying out for some sort of relief from the day to day working man's boredom. Two theatrical geniuses who have collaborated on smash hit after smash hit (each more popular and well received than the one which preceded it) have just staged their latest work for the people of this grand city.
Gilbert & Sullivan's Princess Ida goes through an opening night of polite applause from the audience and the following morning the critics damn it with faint praise. The general consensus from far and wide is that the two have reached a point where they are simply going through the motions and expecting the easy money to continue to come rolling in.
Gilbert is now mad at the world. Sullivan is positively refusing to speak to Gilbert and has sent back his last five story ideas as being tired rehashes of previous collaborations. Their producers are facing a summer heat wave which has turned the Savoy Theater into an oven that would cripple the drawing power of even the most magnificently funny and entertaining work while they are merely stuck with what appears to be a half hearted pretender to the entertainment throne.
The heat is on and the pot is about to blow. Could a motion picture audience ask for more in the way of plot? The unfortunate answer is "Yes."
Topsy-Turvy is blessed with a solid cast of fine performers and a basic story scenario which is ripe for conflict and confusion. And still the motion picture manages to fall flat on its face. It is two hours and forty minutes of missed opportunity after missed opportunity.
The attempt by Gilbert and Sullivan to write, score and stage The Mikado (a Comic Opera which did an unheard of thing, having the entire story set in an oriental background) should have been a hilarious romp through the backstages of nineteenth century British Theatre. But what could have been a fine equivalent of Shakespeare In Love quickly turned into Much To Do About Less Than Nothing.
I wish to make this point very clear. There is not a single actor or actress in this movie who should be ashamed of his or her performance. Each character is played to the fullest, but the motion picture is essentially characterization on top of characterization without any significant plot development and this eventually becomes the story's undoing.
I kept waiting for that consummate fight between Gilbert and Sullivan. In spite of the constant references as to how much the two have trouble dealing with each other ... That fight was never seen on screen.
I kept waiting for an explanation as to what the beautiful young actress's dreadful secret was. Whispers abounded but whispers were all the audience got. Was she a drug user? Was she a lesbian who was hitting on other female cast members? Time after time ... Interesting situations were set up and never followed through on.
The personality conflicts between stuffy Gilbert and hedonistic Sullivan were mentioned time and time again. Yet whenever the two characters were on screen together (which seemed to be less than 10% of the movie) they always treated each other in a polite and respectful manner.
The hatred that Gilbert had concerning his shrewish mother was one of the closest things to a major story line. The woman had driven his father quite mad and had Left Gilbert emotionally scarred to the point that although he had married, and loved his wife very much, he could not bring himself to take the necessary actions to father a child or adopt one with his wife.
The point where Mrs. Gilbert is literally begging her husband to sleep with her and impregnate her provide one of the two really touching moments of the film. Had the producers locked onto this theme and developed it more fully it could been a significant threat for holding the plot together. Instead it is almost tossed aside without a second thought.
The other really touching moment is provided by Sullivan's mistress confronting him with the news that she has missed her time of the month. It is quite clear by the look on her face and his face that each knows she is pregnant. It is also quite clear that this is not the first time for the two of them. When he asks her if he should make the usual arrangements ... She informs him that she has already made other arrangements.
Their actions and attitudes lead the audience to infer that she might possibly be leaving him to marry another man who wants to raise a child with her. And it can also be inferred that Sullivan is quite all right with this out come. She has been a good time but she is beginning to show her age and it is probably time to move on to something a little younger.
The real story that seems to be missed in all of this is that two men are on opposite sides of a see saw. Sullivan has steadfastly refused to grow up while Gilbert has merely grown old and set in his ways. If the producers and the director had focused more clearly on this point then Topsy-Turvy would have been a wonderful character study of how two men (in a marriage of business convenience) wind up affecting the lives of each other and all of those around them.
Instead ... We get moments. Marvelous moments. Glorious moments. But only moments.
Too many little stories are being told at once. There is no major plot. There is no number one sub plot. There is no number two sub plot. There are only hundreds of entertaining but ultimately unfulfilling moments.
I can not say that I hated Topsy-Turvy. But I can not recommend it to anyone else to watch. If you've got three hours to kill watching a lot of very fine actors and actresses give performances which ultimately lead to no where ... Then please be my guest. But don't ever say that I didn't warn you.