A PRODUCTION THAT IS THE VERY MODEL
The comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan can be an acquired taste for modern audiences. The plots are inane and the satire, so cutting in Victorian days, means little to today’s spectators. Still, the music is superb and the lyrics delicious, though it takes a sharp ear to follow Sir William Schwenck Gilbert’s rapid-fire libretto.
In the past couple of generations the Gilbert and Sullivan operas have occasionally been jazzed up to connect with contemporary audiences, like The Swing Mikado and The Hot Mikado in 1939, and the Public Theatre’s hip staging of The Pirates of Penzance in 1980, with rock stars Rex Smith and Linda Ronstadt in the leading roles. The production had a slightly campy approach that outraged G&S purists, but delighted Broadway 
audiences for no fewer than 772 performances, not to mention the successful touring companies that followed.
It’s the spirit of the Public Theatre’s Pirates that pervades the cheery revival at the Marriott Theatre. The production, under Dominic Missimi’s deft direction, delivers on two fronts, honoring the wonderfully melodic G&S score while infusing the staging with a nudge-nudge wink-wink comic flavor that viewers should find irresistible.
The opera takes place in a never-never land in and around Penzance, a town at the southwestern tip of England. The hero is the boyish Frederic. As a child he was supposed to be apprenticed as a seafaring pilot but his nursemaid Ruth got confused and apprenticed him instead as a pirate. It’s that kind of story.
The pirate band is a kindly and unthreatening bunch, led by the swashbuckling Pirate King. They encounter a group of simpering young maidens (all sisters though they look about the same age) who are the daughters of Major-General Stanley. By the end of the show the sisters are all paired off with pirates as future spouses, after the buccaneers have conveniently been revealed to be English noblemen to satisfy British niceties of class.
The Pirates of Penzance, which premiered in 1879, satirizes the music of several opera composers of the day, as well as Victorian stage melodramas, although this can’t possibly matter to the vast majority of a Marriott audience. The evening’s considerable pleasures reside in the superb singing and a fine star turn by Ross Lehman as the major general. The showcase number is Stanley’s tongue-twisting “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General,†tossed off by Lehman at warp speed. The Marriott revival inserts Chicagoland theater references into this number that are sure to arouse giggles of recognition in every playgoing spectator. Although Lehman doesn’t make his first appearance until well into the first act, he’s a joyous comic presence every moment he is on stage.
Lehman is assisted in eliciting the production’s numerous comic joys by Andrew Lupp as a sergeant in the Penzance police force, a group of singularly unaggressive law enforcement men who prefer to sit out any conflict with the criminal element. Choreographer Matt Raftery brightens the police appearances with clever and humorous dance bits, the mincing Lupp leading the way.
While Lehman and Lupp head the comedy end of Pirates, Patricia Noonan dominates the music as Mabel, one of the major general’s daughters and Frederic’s sweetheart. Noonan gives a display of coloratura singing we seldom hear on a Chicagoland musical stage. Her voice is breathtaking in its range and expression, reaching glass-shattering high notes with perfect control. She’s also attractive and an actress of saucy charm. The Jeff Committee need look no further for its Best Actress in a Musical award.
Omar Lopez-Cepero makes a winning young Frederic with a strong tenor voice, and Kevin Early is a dashing Pirate King who also has excellent vocal chops. As Ruth, Alene Robertson does what Alene Robertson has done well on area stages for decades: provide a powerful singing voice and sly comic timing.
The large supporting cast does very well as assorted nubile maidens, faux-menacing pirates, and timid policemen. Their choral singing is superb, though listeners unfamiliar with Gilbert’s often dense lyrics may have a problem absorbing all the words as they whiz by. Still, overall this is as good a musical production as we may see (and hear) all season.
Nancy Missimi has outfitted the ensemble with a striking wardrobe of Victorian costumes, led by the pastel gowns (bustles provocatively protruding) worn by the major general’s daughters. Thomas Ryan’s set design has a nautical flavor, with billowing sails suspended from the rafters. Diane Ferry Williams (lighting) and Robert E, Gilmartin (sound) complete the first-rate design team. And musical director Ryan T. Nelson gets an impressively full sound from his smallish off-stage orchestra.
The show is performed in a tight two hours including an intermission. But that’s plenty of time to present more than two dozen beautifully performed songs and an ample supply of comic foolery. As a bonus, audiences will discover that the number “With Cat-Like Tread†is actually the origin of the boisterous and familiar “Hail, Hail the Gang’s All Here.â€
photos by Peter Coombs
Pirates of Penzance
Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire
ends on June 10, 2012
for tickets, call 847 634 0200 or visit Marriott
for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago