Welcome to The Pirates of Penzance! For the next 90 minutes, we invite you to kick back, relax, and laugh as much as humanly possible. If you’ve seen this show before, you know you’re in for a treat. If you’ve never seen it, some exposition:
Our tale is principally about the duty-bound champion, Frederic, who was mistakenly apprenticed to a pirate instead of a pilot by his middle-aged nursemaid Ruth. He has just celebrated his 21st birthday and is out of his indentures. But we also are introduced to his tenderhearted pirate compatriots, the eccentric Major General Stanley and his bevy of beautiful daughters, the favored soprano Mabel, and the “timidly inclined” pseudo-heroic police. What happens from there, well that’s what you’re about to find out.
The subtitle of this show is The Slave of Duty. Its characters are above all dutiful to whatever moral compass, real or imagined, guides them. Whether that be righteousness, nationalism, delicacy, glory, indulgence, or just plain fun. They act on their impulses. They chance the consequences. They are true to who they are. We can learn something from them.
And this show is, above all, silly. Months ago, when our production team was first deciding how we wanted to approach and design the show, we made a document. It was full of inspirational photos and videos, and at the top it says “overall aesthetic: stupid and ridiculous.” For real, I went back and checked. As much as these characters live in the very real and deep stakes of their situations, they are as we all are: just really tall kids bumbling around, trying to make sense of it all, trying to find the fun.
In this show you’ll see romances and battles, and also every toy you wish you had at your 10th birthday party. So while you’re watching the show, let your inner kid enjoy it too. And if you’re still a kid, you have a head start. Make sure your grown ups laugh at everything you laugh at.
Yo ho, yo ho.
Vanessa Strahan
