CurtainUp
CurtainUp

The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings
www.curtainup.com


HOME PAGE

SITE GUIDE

SEARCH

REVIEWS

FEATURES

NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings


LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway

NYC Restaurants

BOOKS and CDs

OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere

QUOTES

TKTS

PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS

LETTERS TO EDITOR

FILM

LINKS

MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us
A CurtainUp Los Angeles Review
The Pirates of Penzance


Oh, better far to live and die
Under the brave black flag I fly,
Than play a sanctimonious part,
With a pirate head and a pirate heart.
— Pirate King

The Pirates have landed in Long Beach and what Gilbert and Sullivan called a comic opera is given a crisp rollicking staging by director Steven Glaudini for Musical Theatre West. The Carpenter Performing Arts Center, named for singers Richard and Karen Carpenter, its patrons, is a magnificent performing space, taking full advantage of the sets and costumes provided by Edmonton Opera.

The production is headlined by Rex Smith, who played Frederic in the 1981 production at the Public Theatre as well as the movie version. He's now grown into the role of the Pirate King, played then by Kevin Kline. Smith has the imposing physicality to play King and does rascally rogue to a turn. The director gives a nod to Smith's best-selling recording career by having him use his rapier as a microphone.

Pirates pokes fun at the staid and proper seaside town of Penzance with a frothy plot involving young Frederic, mistakenly apprenticed to the pirates by his nursemaid Ruth; his desire to go straight and turn them in; his love affair with Mabel and her numerous sisters, all daughters of Major-General Stanley, who is, in the words of one of the show's most famous songs, "the very model of a modern major-general." This gives the writers a chance to mock the military, duty, and the desire for respectability, turning those concepts on their heads and giving rise to the description "topsy-turvy", also the title of a wonderful 2000 film about the pair.

The cast does well with quick convoluted verse patterns, which must be delivered with precise diction, humor and often while dancing or prancing at the same time. As Frederic, Kristofer McNeeley is dashing, diffident and vocally strong. Despite nasal strain in her upper register, soprano Jennifer Malenke is a vivacious and beautiful Mabel. Norman Large is bluff, funny and superbly realizes the Major-General. Mary Gordon Murray is in fine vocal form and comic fettle as Ruth, the 47-year-old nursemaid whose love is spurned by Frederic but who gets her own back in Act II by appearing in superb scarlet pirate togs to embark on a new career. With gleeful comic timing, Paul Clausen makes the Sergeant of Police a rubber-limbed Charley Chaplinesque clown.

Though rousing choruses and clever patter songs are G&S hallmarks, it's the intricate verse patterns and word puns with which they clothe their satiric expose of hypocrisy and corruption that make these comic operas inimitable in every generation. Though the team turned out some 13 of them over a 20-year period, Pirates is the one most frequently done since D'Oyly Carte, founded in 1876 to produce them, closed their doors. (Editor's Note: This past season alone saw a Pirates at the NYCity Opera, at Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey, not to mention a Yiddish version). It's a shame. I still have vivid memories of their last tour of The Mikado which has as many mid-act show-stoppers as Jersey Boys. Would that some piratical producers would mine this treasure trove more often!



Google
 
Web    
www.curtainup.com

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
Libretto by W. S. Gilbert, Music by Sir Arthur Sullivan
Director: Steven Glaudini
Musical Director: Daniel Thomas
Choreographer: Jamie Torcellii
Cast: Rex Smith (The Pirate King), Kristofer McNeeley (Frederic), Mary Gordon Murray (Ruth), Norman Large (Major-General Stanley), Jennifer Malenke (Mabel), Paul Clausen (Sergeant of Police), John Massey, Jr. (Samuel), Anne Fraser Thomas (Edith), Beth Obregon (Kate), Anne Walsh (Isabel).
Set & Costume Design: Edmonton Opera
Lighting Design: Steven Young
Sound Design: Julie Ferrin
Running Time: Two and a half hours, one intermission
Running Dates: June 30-July 15, 2007
Where: Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach, CA, Reservations: (562) 856-1999.
Reviewed by Laura Hitchcock on July 7.
broadway musicals: the 101 greatest shows of all time
Easy-on-the budget super gift for yourself and your musical loving friends. Tons of gorgeous pictures.


Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide
Leonard Maltin's 2007 Movie Guide


At This Theater Cover
At This Theater


broadwaynewyork.com


The Broadway Theatre Archive>


amazon



©Copyright 2007,

GUCCI

|

Aluminium Chronograph

|

PEAK new fashion ladies venting air spring heighten casual sport shoes P8004E

|

Tiffany & Co Hook and Eye Ring

|

mbt shoes

|

MBT Shoes

|

Tiffany&Co Daisy 925 sterling silver rings

|

Rolex

|

Louis Vuitton

|

Affliction Boots

|

Nike Shoes

|

Nike Dunk

|

MP5 Wholesale

|

Atlanta Falcons

|

Abercrombie Pants Wholesale 002

|

Louis Vuitton

|

UGG Boots Mulberry Genuine Australia classic Tall Ugg Boots

|

GUCCI Handbags

|

UGG Boots Classic Argyle Knit Chocolate 5879

|

Louis Vuitton Business Card Holder Ebony

|

MBT Men's Kisumu Tan Sandals

|

MBT Chapa

|

ugg boots

|

MBT Kisumu 2 White Men's Sandals

|

Nike Shoes

|

Louis Vuitton Monogram Denim Messenger Bag PM m95865

|

Bailey Button Uggs

|

Sexy Costume QS0169

|

Phone Wholesale

|

Bikinis Sets

|

Wholesale

|

Car DVD Player

|

LV

|

Tourbillon

|

Tiffany tiffany replica ring

|

Superleggera J12 White

|

Tiffany

|

rolex

|

Mouse Wholesale

|

Nike Air Max 2003

|

Monogram Groom

|

GUCCI

|

Wholesale

|

Nike Air Max LTD (dark blue/white) No.372340

Elyse Sommer.
Information from this site may not be reproduced in print or online without specific permission from esommer@curtainup.com