Rating: 
Summary: AN UNDER-RATED CLASSIC
Review: This visually luxurious movie was a charm at the theatre. At home on DVD it's even better! The sounds, sets, colours all combine to provide a stunning 161 minute biopic. The portrayal of the seamier side of Victorian morals is clever and witty, particularly Sullivan's attention to his various comforts. The lives of the cast also caught my attention - each one drawn very quickly and with incredible depth, given that there were so many of them. Fine performances, wonderful overall ambience, accurate authenticity, deep characterisations, intelligence in script and execution -- a film that's not afraid to show the realities behind the performances and not afraid to leave certain matters in the air at the end.
Rating: 
Summary: wonderful when you can't see the mikado
Review: this film is, of course, for g&s aficianados. surprising though it may seem to us, there are those who do not like g&s. one of my voice teachers, a brit yet--almost treasonable, went into a complete swivet when i asked to work on a g&s aria. (we settled on one each of cole porter and noel coward.) this film is also for those who have a fair bit of knowledge about late-19th century england and its mores (there's a virtual acute accent over that 'e'). the passing reference to 'chinese' gordon's death at khartoum places the film's events in the broader historic context. the dialogue manages to suggest the formality of the times without becoming a parody. the sets, especially the senior mrs. gilbert's bedchamber ('room' is inadequate)are marvelous, as, of course, are the costumes. the era was wonderfully captured, along with some of its hypocrisies. the film is also impressive in the way a short scene or a few lines of dialogue can suggest the family and social history and background of gilbert and sullivan and the various actors. this is not a film for people who cannot hear between the lines. the perfomances, spoken and sung, are wonderful--especially since you can contrast the performances of several of the actors in this film with their performances in 'trainspotting'--great demonstration of the concept of 'range.'. n.b.: when leonora is speaking of 'her' beauty, she is quoting yumyum's lines from the opera, as well as revealing, possibly, her own feelings. others have mentioned its treatment of the creative process and the manner in which a performance evolves. i enjoyed the superficial civility of the composer's critiques of the orchestra. so much more suave (and lacking in vulgarity) than is likely today. this is a thoroughly enjoyable film that assumes the best of its audience. that alone makes it worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: Insight into Gilbert & Sullivan
Review: This was a great movie just on its own but if you like G & S shows it's gives great insight into the two men and their sometimes difficult relationship. I'm struck by how much humor and sparkling life has been produced by these dour old men. If you like this movie then you have to buy The Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt...the best of a mighty good list of shows.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful film packed with great performances and music
Review: There is so much I love about this movie it is hard to try to find some coherent way to tell you why this is such a wonderful film. There is no way to tell you everything that I delight in, what follows will have to do. Let's start with the way it evokes late 19th century London and the wonderful culture of that time. We are given wonderful and bright colors in the theatre and in the homes and businesses! We are charmed by the crude telephones (which were ultra-tech in those days), the fashions, the exotic mixing of truly disparate cultures who knew little of each other, the notions of the time of what was progressive (women smoking, "free love", and so on), the music making in salons and in private (the piano four-hands, the recital, and the reading to each other). What a magical evocation of a past age. I also love the way it takes us into the making of musical theater (well, it is English - so theatre, I guess), with all the varied personalities with their often strange cares and woes. This was a time before agents and while stars still commanded higher pay, they had to try and get it themselves. The negotiations of the cast with D'oyly Carte are priceless, as is his masterful handling of the temperamental Sullivan, and the rigid Gilbert. And Wendy Nottingham plays Helen Lenoir (D'Oyly Carte's associate) with a charming steeliness that is captivating. As Gilbert and Sullivan struggle with Sullivan's requirement he write a real opera rather than another topsy-turvy musical we get to see how Gilbert comes up with the idea for "The Mikado". And I love how the movie isn't linear. It is wonderful to see various numbers in all stages of preparation. From the earliest rehearsals, to reading lines with the stars and Gilbert correcting the pronunciation and improvisations to get them to hold to what he wrote and the way his lines scan. We even get to see the way cast members struggle when hard rehearsed numbers are cut (and restored). Then there are the wonderful performances of the entire cast. Jim Broadbent and Lesley Manville have a magical chemistry as she cares for and helps a largely oblivious, yet loving Gilbert. He really is clueless, but talented and doesn't understand what he gets away with because of his talent. Ms Manville's performance is probably the most touching and beautiful in the film. On the other hand, Gilbert's encounters with his separated parents is an adventure into the strange and are both humorous and a bit frightening. Allan Corduner's portrayal of Arthur Sullivan is another treasure the film gives us. Sullivan and his free-spirited entourage are a lot of fun, if a bit tired and dissipated. His liaisons with a wide range of women and his touching conversations with them are touching and a bit pathetic at the same time. However, it is wonderful to hear Victorian chamber music with all its sentimentality. It can somehow sounds a bit cloying to our jaded ears, but the movie does such a fantastic job of evoking the time that the music can be better understood and heard in its cultural context and we can hear with somewhat fresher ears than if we had just popped a disk into our CD player. Timothy Spall and Martin Savage give great performances as stars in the company. They sing and perform as if they had done these operettas (the film calls them operas) all their lives. Maybe they did before they became famous film actors, but it is uncanny how good they are in their roles. The frailties of the stars of the D'oyly Carte Company are manifold and provide other opportunities to see 19th century Victorianism up close without condemnation or praise. It is wonderfully done. The crazy and casual use of injected drugs, the constants imbibing of alcohol and the ubiquitous smoking also help us breathe in the culture of that time. This is a great treasure from that wonderful opening scene with the white gloved attendants checking each theatre seat for proper functionality and cleanliness, to Gilbert's mad walk through the back streets of London during the premier of Mikado, to Leonora's soliloquy to her own beauty and her solo, "The Sun's Rays are All Ablaze" and everything in between are things to always treasure.
Rating:
Summary: Needs a couple of viewings
Review: I have only a superficial understanding of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan production team. After the first viewing I still felt the same way. But the second time around things cleared up a bit because a great deal that I had missed with dialogue in British accents filtered into my thick head. Seeing the conception, struggle, and ultimate success in creating the masterpiece, Mikado, gave me a deeper appreciation for the complementary and often adversarial nature of their long partnership. The background of all the peripheral players is exposed like peeling the layers of an onion allowing for eye watering sympathy in each fragile but famous actor. I recommend this movie for anyone who appreciates sharp and clever word play as well as the majesty of stage craft.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant! A Masterpiece! A Work of True Genius!
Review: To be honest I was never a Gilbert and Sullivan fan, and then Topsy Turvy came along.
I loved the way you really got the sense of how G and S's creativity manifested and also the opulence of their lifestyle and of the Victorian Era itself.
I can't get my fill of this film. Mike Leigh has created a masterpiece. The actors are brilliant and their singing is gorgeous-like everything else in this exquisite production.
The attention to detail is awesome.
I agree heartily with all the other positive reviews in this section. As for the negative comments:
WHAT lack of story?? Like were you waiting for a hair-raising coach chase, exploding lanterns and Jack the Ripper???
Rating:
Summary: Gilbert & Sullivan prepare to produce "The Mikado"
Review: The first half of "Topsy-Turvy," Mike Leigh's enjoyable period piece about the London theater late in the time of good Queen Victoria, is about the famous comic operetta team of Gilbert & Sullivan not writing another show. Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner) has been knighted by her Majesty and now wants to devote his talent to composing a serious opera before he dies and wants nothing to do with the world of topsy-turvy that writer William S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) keep revisiting. The pair have done 10 shows together and the latest, "Princess Ida," has close early, forcing impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte (Ron Cook) to get in the business of putting on revivals ("The Sorcerer"). But while Sullivan is off in a Paris bordello, presumably being inspired to write his serious opus, Gilbert's long suffering wife, Kitty (Lesley Manville) drags him off for some diverting entertainment at a performance of a Japanese Kabuki play. Gilbert picks up a samurai sword and eventually there comes the moment when we know from the look in his eyes that he has come up with the idea for "The Mikado." The second half of "Topsy-Turvy" has to do with the preparation for the first performance of "The Mikado," and except for a scene in which he pleasantly takes the orchestra to task for its mistakes during the first run through of a song, Sullivan disappears and Gilbert takes over. This is rather ironic because on opening night Gilbert will not appear until the curtain call while Sullivan is done in the pit leading everyone through their paces. The actual performances are cut into the film during the preparation stages, giving us a taste of the polished finish product while Gilbert correct, revises, and cuts the work as we go merrily along. Besides, with all his high profile character work and Oscar win for "Iris," Broadbent has become something of a star, or at least a recognizable face with a name that everyone now knows, since this film came out. There are lots of films with nice auditions sequences ("Fame" and "A Chorus Line" immediately come to mind), but few that have dealt with the rehearsal process to this extent ("All That Jazz" and "Stage Door" have a couple of choice scenes). I admit I am not familiar enough with the works of Gilbert & Sullivan to enjoy "Topsy-Turvy" on those grounds, but as someone who has been in their share of dramatic productions (including a musical) I loved the details of preparation depicted in the film and the fact that Gilbert actually had a heart along with that coin counting mind. But if you do not have any theater blood in your veins, then I suspect this 2000 film will be a tad too tedious for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Evidently too classy for me
Review: TOPSY-TURVY won two Oscars at the 2000 Academy Awards (costuming, make-up), and was hailed by critics of national standing as one of the year's best movies. Well, this review gives me the opportunity to demonstrate what a monumental low-brow I really am. Set in mid-1880s London, the film is essentially the story of the conception and production of the comic opera "Mikado" by Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner) and William Gilbert (Jim Broadbent). Sullivan, the composer, is an irrepressible bon vivant and the complete opposite of lyricist Gilbert, a serious businessman. The two ruled the city's stage scene for years, and T-T is a tribute to their remarkable partnership. Unfortunately, I've never been a particular fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, and T-T is 160 interminable minutes of dialogue that was, for me, neither dramatic or comic, and the "action" proceeded at a glacial pace. The costuming and make-up deserved the Oscars they won, and Broadbent and Corduner do solid work, but how far can you go on those merits? TOPSY-TURVY will engage those students of the live stage who are fascinated with the nuts and bolts of putting a production together. But I may as well have been watching two engineers collaborate on the design and construction of an assembly line for making wire hangers. Even the 15 minutes or so dedicated to showing "Mikado" as it finally appeared at the Savoy Theatre left me cold. "Mikado" is no "Cats", which I saw at least four times, or "Evita", which I saw thrice. As I recall, T-T played locally only in the art houses, and even then not for very long. It apparently didn't appeal to the sweaty movie-going masses, of which, for once, I admit being a proud member.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST HAVE FOR G&S FANS
Review: Topsy-Turvy is a time-capsule view of part of the lives of Gilbert, Sullivan, D'Oyly Cart and the Savoy Company who brought Pinafore, Penzance, Mikado and others to life as told during the months preceeding the decision to produce the Mikado, through rehearsal and finally opening night. A superb masterpiece of vignettes and touching insights into the lives of two of the most gifted collaborators of the Victorian Age.
The music is awesome, the dialog is witty and rapier-sharp, the sets, costumes and production values are top-drawer. If you appreciate Merchant-Ivory, or any other Victorian era movie, then this is a MUST SEE. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed feelings--wonderful music, no plot!!!
Review: What is there to say about Topsy-Turvy, a sometimes delightful, often strenuous, musical period drama? Topsy-Turvy catches Gilbert and Sullivan in the midst of their successful careers. Having already scored numerous hits(The Pirates of Penzance, Sorcerer, and HMS Pinafore to name a few), they've reached a creative dry spot with their latest work, entitled Princess Ida. Sullivan (Allan Corduner), the composer, is tired of not being taken seriously and vows to write a "serious" piece of music as his next effort, much to the dismay of his partner Gilbert (Jim Broadbent), who is happy with their whimsical, "topsy-turvy" scenarios. Sullivan finds his fulfilling his goal extremely difficult until, due to his wife's insistence, Gilbert attends a Japanese exposition in London, where inspiration quickly strikes and "The Mikado" is slowly (exruciatingly slow) born. Soon, we are being taken behind the creative process of the opera, from the writing of "The Mikado" and eventually to its opening night.Never having heard a Gilbert and Sullivan piece, I was quite fascinated by the musical numbers and enjoyed them a great deal. They are executed quite nicely and performed with great energy by the entire incredible cast. And it is the fantastic cast and these musical numbers that make the film so bearable. The costumes, the sets, the performances, and Mike Leigh's brilliant direction are all on target and greatly benefit the film. Unfortunately, there is not enough plot, and not much going on, to save the film from being an absolute bore. And at almost three hours, it is an almost unbearable bore. I would find my mind drifting off until another wonderful musical number began. Unfortunately, they are too few and too far in-between. Perhaps a film version of "The Mikado" would have been more appropriate because there simply is not enough story here to sustain the entire film and keep its audience attention. Had the film been 40 minutes shorter, and that's a lot, it could have greatly benefited the film. Overall, the film had too much going for it to be absolutely terrible, if only it was more interesting. How I wish it was!!! The soundtrack, however, is simply amazing!!!
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