New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players
The Pirates of Penzance
Press release

This New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players production is your chance to get carried away by Pirates. Join the band of swashbuckling buccaneers, bumbling British bobbies, frolicsome Victorian maidens, and the delightfully dotty “model of a modern Major-General” for a rollicking romp over the rocky coast of Cornwall. The rich sounds of full orchestra, chorus, and legitimate vocal soloists resonate with classic elegance and power while the company’s vibrancy, energy and contemporary sense of humor keep the show alive and exciting to a modern audience. The Pirates of Penzance - they’ll steal your heart away!

The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty was first performed at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on December 31, 1879. It was the only Gilbert & Sullivan operetta to have its world premiere in the United States and it has remained popular both here and throughout the English-speaking world ever since. Gilbert’s wit (always incisive but never vicious or dated) and Sullivan’s memorable score (including the original tune from which “Hail, hail the gang’s all here” is drawn) are among the most valuable treasures of musical theater history.

Patter songs are a Gilbert & Sullivan trademark and Pirates features the most famous of them all, “I am the very model of a modern Major-General”. This jaunty tune has been cleverly set to different words countless times (Tom Lehrer’s element song a notable example) and used in commercials to sell everything from Campbells soup to Bounty, cars, newspapers and other items. Pirates also contains some of Gilbert’s most famous lyrics such as the often-used quotation “a policeman’s lot is not a happy one” from the act two lament of the diffident “men in blue”. Other highlights of the show include “For I am a Pirate King” and Mabel’s show stopping coloratura aria “Poor wand’ring one”.

The plot of Pirates centers on the dilemma of young Frederic who, as a child, was mistakenly apprenticed to the pirates until his twenty first birthday. Since he was born in leap year on February 29, he is honor bound to remain a pirate until the distant date of 1940, despite his moral objection to piracy. Helping Frederic to deal with this unusual predicament are the brash Pirate King, Ruth - the pirate maid-of-all-work, romantic Mabel, and the pridefully pattering Major-General Stanley.

QUOTES ABOUT NYGASP’S The Pirates of Penzance

“Opulent... colorful and inventive...beautifully crafted… the stage direction offered the balance of economy and extravagance that makes Gilbert & Sullivan work... lovely choreographic touches...polished but retaining spontaneity... The choruses of pirates, daughters and policemen sang and acted delightfully, and the orchestra supported the cast with robust playing guaranteed to warm the most demanding Savoyard’s heart.”— THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Engaging… unfailingly enchanting…visually, the production is impressive, while the stage direction and excellent cast are further pleasures...the conducting showed total musical know how...” — NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

“Fresh, smart, and winning without gimmicks.... keen theatrical sense... consistent quality... the Gilbert & Sullivan canon enters its second century in the best of hands...”— NEW YORK MAGAZINE

“Spirited... delightful... meticulous direction...”— NEW YORK POST

“One of the most joyous performances of The Pirates of Penzance it has been my privilege to witness… guided by good taste and expressed with exceptional enunciation…a particularly apt gathering of players… not only did they sing and move well as choruses, but they also were highly individualized… intelligible characters without recourse to camp or mugging… neat movements, lavish costumes” — NEW YORK NEWSDAY

“ ‘Pirates of Penzance’ a Jolly (Roger) good time… the balance between high-jinks unique to the production and the de rigeur business, without which no aficionado would be satisfied, was just right… wowed the crowd with a dazzling coloratura soprano display… imaginative scenic concoctions.” — THE STAR-LEDGER (NJ)

“ ‘Pirates a treasure’… N.Y. touring troupe shines in this Gilbert & Sullivan classic… a lively production of The Pirates of Penzance that soared on exceptionally strong singing… up to date with topical and local references…— AKRON (OH) BEACON-JOURNAL 

Story of The Pirates of Penzance

When Frederic was yet a little boy, his nurse (Ruth) was told to apprentice him to become a pilot. She heard the word incorrectly and apprenticed him to a band of pirates, remaining with them herself as a maid-of-all-work. Although Frederic loathed the trade to which he had thus been bound, he dutifully served. As the curtain rises, his indentures are up and he announces his intention to leave the band and devote himself to the extermination of piracy. He urges the pirates to join him in embracing a more lawful calling, but they refuse. Ruth, however, wishes to become his wife. Having seen but few women during his pirate life at sea, Frederic hesitates to accept a woman so much older than himself, but he finally consents to take her. Just then a group of girls, all the wards of Major-General Stanley, happen upon the scene. Frederic sees their beauty - and Ruth’s plainness - and renounces her. Of these girls, Mabel takes a particular interest in Frederic, and he in her. The other girls are seized by the pirates and threatened with immediate marriage. When the Major-General arrives, he can dissuade the pirates only by a ruse: he tells them that he is an orphan, and so works upon their sympathies that they let him and his wards go free.

During the ensuing days and nights, however, this lie troubles the Major-General’s conscience. He sits brooding over it at night in a ruined chapel. He is consoled by his wards’ sympathy and Frederic’s plan of immediately leading a band of police against the pirates. The police are reluctant, but Frederic is still enthusiastic. Meanwhile the Pirate King and Ruth seek out Frederic with surprising news. They have discovered that his indentures were to run until his twenty first birthday, and - as he was born on February 29 - he has really had as yet only five birthdays. Obeying the dictates of his strong sense of duty, he immediately rejoins the pirates and tells them of the deception that has been practiced upon them. They swear revenge as Frederic bids Mabel farewell. When Mabel tells the police of this change they comment on their unfortunate lot, then decide to hide. The pirates storm the chapel, seize the Major-General, and easily defeat the unarmed policemen, however, when requested to yield “in Queen Victoria’s name”, they do so at once. Ruth reveals that these apparently lawless pirates are “all noblemen who have gone wrong”. The Major-General pardons all and allows them to marry his wards.