Pirates of Penzance, The

One of the celebratory elements of Stratford’s 60th Anniversary season is the return of famed alumni and their achievements at the festival. This popular Gilbert and Sullivan opera was one of the most acclaimed of the landmark series directed and choreographed by Brian MacDonald at Stratford in the 1980s; its filmed version is still sold in the Stratford store and around the world. Indeed, more than anyone else, MacDonald was responsible for developing a company of world-class singers and dancers among the Festival’s classical actors. But that tradition has changed mostly to rock music, so it was not only nostalgic but also exciting to see Stratford produce a new version 27 years later.

Ethan McSweeny directs this Pirates of Penzance with much wit and invention, though his program note about having “hewed very close to the original script” is perhaps deliberately naïve. His 2012 version is no more authentically Gilbert and Sullivan’s than was MacDonald’s 1985 one at Stratford or the one directed by Wilford Leach in New York with Linda Ronstadt as Mabel, Rex Smith as Frederic, and Kevin Kline as the Pirate King. G & S purists criticized MacDonald for some alterations in the score, but the New York Public Theater’s Pirates had many more, and Stratford’s on DVD is better sung and danced than the British or United States’ versions. I was very happy with McSweeney’s: it is hardly as brilliantly choreographed as MacDonald’s was, but it is great fun, good music, and bracingly lively.

There is, by the way, a great deal of nonsense about how purely the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company of London, which used to own the rights to the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, which they first produced, has preserved the only true, authentic versions of those works. Those who saw D’Oyly Carte perform the operas after 1950 noted that they added or cut comic bits of business, changed numbers, and completely redesigned them for every U.S. tour, with serious changes in the dialogue.

Sean Arbuckle sings well and moves better as the dashing and witty Pirate King. Kyle Blair’s Frederic has a lovely lyric tenor and is amusingly held to quiet innocence as a male-ingenue hero, until he finally gets into the pirates vs. policemen struggle. Gabrielle Jones is both a strong-voiced contralto and a very funny comedienne playing Frederic’s faithful nursemaid, Ruth. Paul Tazewell’s costumes are flavorful and often silly, and I won’t describe his hilarious outfit for Ruth in Act II because it’s too nutty a gag to spoil. Some of what he does with the Major General’s daughters and nieces is a hoot.

A likably funny Major General, C. David Johnson carries the role nicely; but he often looks and sounds like a showbiz veteran. Amy Wallace gets giggles as a more predatory Mabel than usual, but she sings the role gorgeously. And the stomping pirates and timid police sing and dance really well.

Conducting the singers spiritedly, Franklin Brasz leads an orchestra of about 20 and does much justice to the understandably beloved score. McSweeny gets some playfully offbeat settings for the pirate’s ship, the seacoast, and the Major General’s spooky digs, and makes humorous blockings for Anna Louizos’ interesting, mysterious designs for them. But I thought Howell Binkley’s virtuosic lighting really made the effects and deserved applause.

An additional patter-song verse written to honor Stratford AD Des McAnuff wasn’t any worse than the one in Brian MacDonald’s Iolanthe, or everyone’s inevitable additions to KoKo’s “Little List” in The Mikado. It’s an occupational hazard. But I thought this revival was a picnic and a sure crowd-pleaser.