Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Theater Review | 'Pirates of Penzance'

The Happy Return of the Pirate King and His Loyal Swashbucklers

The "Pirates" cast at the Goodspeed Opera House prepares to return to the ship and sail.Credit...Diane Sobolewski

Correction Appended

Maybe the reason the operetta “Pirates of Penzance” has been so popular over the years is that most of its characters have such high self-esteem. These people seem deliriously happy with their lot in life.

And there they are, in Goodspeed’s colorful, entertaining new production. The Pirate King (Andrew Varela), surrounded by his loyal men, sings the lines “It is a glorious thing/To be a pirate king.” Major General (Ed Dixon), relaxing at home, cheerfully makes the show’s best-known musical declaration, “I am the very model of a modern major general.”

Even the general’s vacant blonde daughters are thrilled, in their case just to be taking a walk to the seashore. In no way is it ever indicated that the women have anything significant to do other than being pretty.

A vague discontent is seen, however, in another daughter, Mabel (Farah Alvin), who has inadvertently been born with a brain, which she exercises regularly.

The same is true of young Frederic (Jason Michael Snow), who has been a good pirate since childhood but only out of a sense of duty. Because of a teeny mistake by his nursery maid, he was indentured to the Pirate King until his 21st birthday, which appears to have arrived.

Frederic values good manners and honesty. “Individually I love you all with affection unspeakable,” he tells his fellow pirates. “But collectively I look upon you with a disgust that amounts to absolute detestation.”

(The Pirate King faintly defends his chosen career: “I don’t think much of our profession, but contrasted with respectability, it is comparatively honest.”)

If there is a higher power, Mabel and Frederic will be rescued from their situations and find each other.

In this case, the higher powers are, of course, Sir William S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur S. Sullivan, who wrote “Penzance” in 1879. After a one-night performance in London, for copyright purposes, the show opened in New York on New Year’s Eve, with Gilbert and Sullivan in attendance.

The collaborators had not created any terribly dangerous characters. The Pirate King and his team of swashbucklers refuse to attack ships’ crews weaker than them, and they make it a point never to harm an orphan because they are orphans themselves.

Mabel does meet Frederic, fairly early in Act I. In fact, all the pirates meet all the daughters and are immediately smitten to the point of a group desire to marry at once.

The Major General has something to say about the wedding plans: “I object to pirates as sons-in-law.”

The Pirate King replies: “We object to major generals as fathers-in-law. But we waive that point.”

Mr. Varela makes a dashing if not breathtaking lead pirate. He plays the role with a single facial expression, which is strange, but at least it happens to be one of menacing glee, which does bring to mind Johnny Depp as the half-wicked, half-oblivious Capt. Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. Mr. Depp has always said that he was imitating Keith Richards. Mr. Varela’s exact source is not clear.

Mr. Dixon is an audience favorite as the general, and deservedly so. He cuts an impressive figure, meeting the role’s greatest challenge: singing Gilbert and Sullivan’s clever lyrics fast enough to be funny but slowly enough to be understood. (Consider “About binomial theorem I’m teeming with a lot o’ news/With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.”)

The charming Ms. Alvin is the other cast standout, giving brainy sisters a very good name. When she sees Frederic for the first time, she bursts into “Poor Wand’ring One,” the authors’ parody of sentimental opera. When she sings along in “Tarantara,” she is every bit as determined as the pirates or the local policemen who have been hired to battle them.

Gordon Greenberg directed with a contagious sense of 19th-century irreverence, which is playing remarkably well after almost 127 years.

“The Pirates of Penzance” is at the Goodspeed Opera House, Route 82, East Haddam, through Dec. 17. Information: www.goodspeed.org or (860) 873-8668.

Correction: Dec. 3, 2006

A review last Sunday of “Pirates of Penzance” at the Goodspeed Opera House misstated two lines of dialogue. In the Goodspeed production, the Major General’s line “I object to pirates as sons-in-law” is not preceded by “But wait a bit,” as it was in the original operetta. The Pirate King’s response, quoted as “We object to major generals as fathers-in-law. But we waive that point. We do not press it. We look over it,” omits the last two sentences in the Goodspeed version. In addition, the lyric “Let us gaily tread the measure/Make the most of fleeting leisure,” from “Climbing Over Rocky Mountain,” was deleted in a revision of the song (retitled “Into the Jungle!”) for the Goodspeed production.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT