Smooth Operetta  Gilbert and Sullivan's travels: Allan Corduner
(left) and Jim Broadbent in Topsy-Turvy. Simon Mein  The evening
of March 14, 1885, was an auspicious one in the annals of
musical theater. Less than four years had passed since the
opening of London's Savoy Theatre, built specifically for the
productions of librettist William Schwenk Gilbert and composer
Arthur Seymour Sullivan. The partners' first six works had
catapulted them to great success, and the regal Savoy housed
their final eight, most notably The Mikado, which ran from that
splendid night for an unprecedented 672 consecutive
performances.  Mike Leigh's amazing new film, Topsy-Turvy,
begins more than a year earlier, as the recently knighted
Sullivan (Allan Corduner) rises from his sickbed to conduct the
first performance of Princess Ida at the Savoy. The new comic
opera receives a lukewarm response, and although Sullivan's
score garners praise, Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) is dubbed "the
King of Topsy-Turvydom" by a petulant critic. We soon