The Pirates of Penzance

Show Description:

No Gilbert and Sullivan work boasts as many walk-away tunes as The Pirates of Penzance. Building on the success of H.M.S. Pinafore, but trading—as their satirical focus—the rigors of naval discipline for the obligations of duty, G&S manage to burlesque their normal share of popular institutions, including the army, the police, and operatic sopranos. Pirate apprentice Frederic, age 21, has served out his indentures and, replete with a sense of duty, joins the police force, determined to exterminate his old mates. He falls in love with Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley, who himself is the target of a pirate revenge plot. Plans go awry when it is revealed that, thanks to a leap-day birth, Frederic is really only five and one-quarter years old. The engaging musical score includes some of the catchiest music in operetta: Mabel’s pyrotechnic “Poor, Wandering One”; the tongue-twisting “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General”; “A Policeman’s Lot”; and “With Catlike Tread,” which, decades later, was given new words as “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here.”