By Marilyn Lester . . . .
In the words of W.S. Gilbert, librettist-lyricist of the comic opera, The Pirates of Penzance: “Oh, joy! Oh. rapture!” If audience reaction is anything to go by, that’s exactly how you’ll feel about The Roundabout Theatre Company’s re-imagined and modernized version, billed as Pirates! The Penzance Musical. And that title change is no hype. Musicals didn’t exist in Gilbert & Sullivan’s time; such stage works were billed as comic operas, light operas or operettas. William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan wrote 14 of them (between 1871 and 1896), and they did it very well—they were widely and wildly popular. Three of the works, The Pirates of Penzance, or, The Slave of Duty (1879), H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and The Mikado (1885) have become the most-loved and most revived through the decades. Many’s the kid whose school likely put one of these gems on. Like the Shakespeare canon, G&S operettas are flexible (and fun), hardly ever losing currency when produced—or adapted. Move the location from the Coast of Cornwall to New Orleans? No problem, the switch works just fine.
Liberated from its Victorian corset, Pirates! The Penzance Musical has been wittily and cannily brought into the 21st century, never missing a beat: “what, never?” well, “Hardly ever” (H.M.S. Pinafore). Guided by Scott Ellis, whose superb direction keeps the many gears well-oiled and smartly moving, this face-paced version has success stamped all over it. The adaptation is by multi-hyphenate Rupert Holmes (musician, singer, songwriter, dramatist, author) whose The Mystery of Edwin Drood musical earned two Tony Awards. (Brother Richard Holmes, a principal lyric baritone, also happens to be a premier interpreter of the G&S canon, appearing most especially with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players.) Geared to a modern audience, this re-imagining ZHUZHes up the original with a production that’s sheer delight. Diehard Savoyards might clutch their pearls and gasp, but Holmes and the Pirates team, have created magic by tuning up language, shifting a plot point or two and importing a few tunes from other G&S works (clearly indicated in the Playbill).
The Act One finale, for instance, ends with H.M.S. Pinafore’s rousing “We Sail the Ocean Blue,” making it a true nine-o’clock number. Other such fiddlements include a touch of Iolanthe with the show’s energetic opening chorus of pirates, “Pour Oh Pour;” the addition of that operetta’s “The Nightmare Song,” plus “Alone, and Yet Alive” from The Mikado. And what of Sullivan’s music? Sir Arthur, a pioneer of cross-genre composing, not only created “serious” pieces, but was praised as an excellent craftsman and composer of popular tunes, drawing from multiple sources for inspiration, including church music and drawing room ballads. He was also particularly attuned to Gilbert’s lyrics. But, to the modern ear, stylistic musical change over time can make Sullivan’s work seem terribly dated. Hence, a Pirates set in New Orleans where orchestrators Joseph Joubert (who is also the music director) and Daryl Waters brilliantly juiced up the tunes, such as “Poor Wand’ring One” with jazz and blues elements, yet still maintaining the integrity of the originals. Jazz adaptations of The Mikado—The Swing Mikado (1938) and The Hot Mikado (1939)—had already set successful precedents.
G&S operettas were all about satire—cultural sendups of society, politics, government and human nature in general. Pirates is no exception, with its bumbling police (their cat-like tread is anything but) and the reveal of who the pirates really are. In the original, early on in Act One, Ruth, the Pirate Maid of all Work, divulges: “One moment! let me tell you who they are. They are no members of the common throng; They are all noblemen who have gone wrong.” Politicians shifting to piracy—Gilbertian irony and commentary at its best. The opera’s resolution comes when the politicos agree to return to their “real” jobs because they are each Englishmen, after all, who love their Queen. Adapted for the modern American sensibility, the reconceived ending delivers a shipload of “joyous glee” in everyone agreeing they’re united in their humanity via “We’re All from Someplace Else.” While the bite of Gilbert’s satire is missing, the replacement fits the angst of a current-day, divided world.
The conceit of Pirates centers around young Frederic, who’s an apprenticed pirate, now on the cusp of his 21st birthday wherein he’ll become a free agent. Played by an appealing Nicholas Barasch, his Frederic captures the wide-eyed wonder of a naif, even though he’s been raised amid a band of supposed cutthroats—a crew who fail at plundering because their captain, an orphan, has a soft spot in his heart for other orphans, and word has gotten around. That captain, the Pirate King, in the form of a hunky, swashbuckling, Ramin Karimloo (“I Am the Pirate King”) signals from the get-go that this production is going to be one heck of a ride. The charismatic Karimloo, who honestly makes you believe it is indeed a wonderful thing to be a pirate king, possesses an athleticism that must have been gift wrapped for choreographer Warren Carlyle. Taking full measure of Karimloo’s ability to leap onto barrels (and more), Carlyle’s inventive, creative and breathtaking choreography mightily ups the production’s rapture quotient over every inch of the stage. And, as is part of the G&S opera template, if there’s a male chorus, of course there’s a mirror image in a chorus of females—in this case the many daughters of the retired Major General Stanley.
In that role, master of comedy David Hyde Pierce, unnecessarily costumed too over the top, sports a fierce set of mutton chops along with a cherry nose. Stanley is the stock G&S comic character, but not a circus clown; the nose is especially distracting, particularly since Pierce is so comically gifted. A raise of the eyebrow or twitch of a facial muscle elicits reams of laughter. Most impressive is his command of G&S patter—tongue-twisting tunes of Victorian vocalese delivered at ultra-fast tempo. With “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General,” and the transposed “Nightmare Song” (Iolanthe), Pierce ruled, as he does even in small moments. When the policemen prepare to do battle with the pirates, amid a repeated marching chorus of “we go, we go,” he makes the most of a few words in the spotlight; “but, you don’t go!” he insists vehemently, comically. Perhaps their hesitancy is in the chorus of daughters encouraging them on with “Go ye heroes, go and die!” Meanwhile, Frederic and main daughter Mabel have found each other and prepare to marry, with Frederic soon to be a free man. As played by Samantha Williams, this Mabel, although sweetly appealing, lacks the strong vocal prowess and stage presence required for the role, especially amidst such a robust cast.
The plot twist, moved from early on in Act One to the end of Act Two, is delivered by Frederic’s former nursemaid, Ruth—a stock Gilbertian character of the lovelorn spinster, often of strong opinion and personality. This Ruth is played by Jinkx Monsoon, drag queen, actress, singer and comedienne, who’s less nursemaid and more, well, drag queen, but that’s the point. Her character’s romantic yearning for Frederic in this iteration, though, does border on the edge of ick. It turns out Ruth is hard of hearing, and so “When Frederic was a little lad” she made a mistake: on his father’s behest she apprenticed him to a pirate, instead of to a ship’s pilot. Bad enough, but the contract of apprenticeship released him on his 21st birthday. But since Frederic was born on leap day, February 29, as birthdays go, he won’t be 21 until 1948; at present he’s “a little boy of five.” As a “slave of duty,” Frederic pledges to remain with the pirates and Mabel pledges to wait for him. All is, of course, eventually resolved and there is the happy ending: a softly-landing political statement of our time, bolstered by the frenetically rousing double chorus of pirates/police and daughters, plus principals. Who could possibly resist a finale of joyous abandonment that features a kick line, washboards and other multiple bits of business! Pirates! The Penzance Musical is unalloyed merriment: campy and creative, and a right-down regular jewel in the crown of theatrical achievement.
Charming costumes, especially the royal vestiture enhancing Karimloo’s physical assets, are by Linda Cho, Those mutton chops of the Major General and hair/wig design are by Charles G. LaPointe. The Act One set, a comely dock on the Mississippi waterfront, and Act Two set, a ruined chapel with graveyard in the moonlight, are the work of imaginative set designer David Rockwell. On-point lighting and sound design are by Donald Holder and Mikaal Sulaiman respectively. An orchestra of 15 super-talented multi-instrumentalists (under Joubert’s baton) bring new arrangements of the musical canon to magnificent life.
Pirates! The Penzance Musical, witha run time of 2 hours and 15 minutes, including one intermission, plays at the Todd Haimes Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street, New York, NY through Sunday, July 27, 2025.
Photos: Joan Marcus