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No Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera boasts as many walk-away tunes as The Pirates of Penzance, the only collaboration of the pair to premiere on Broadway, and not in England. Building on the success of the previous year’s H.M.S. Pinafore, but trading—as their principal “serious” focus—the rigors of naval discipline for the obligations of duty, G&S manage to burlesque their normal share of popular institutions, including the army, the police, and operatic sopranos. Pirate apprentice Frederic, at age 21, has faithfully served out his indentures and, replete with a sense of duty, joins the police force, determined to exterminate his old mates. He falls in love with Mabel, the first girl he sees, but the daughter of Major-General Stanley, who himself is the target of a pirate revenge plot. Plans go awry when it is revealed that, thanks to a leap-day birth, Frederic is really only five and one-quarter years old. The engaging musical score includes some of the catchiest music in the G&S canon: Mabel’s pyrotechnic “Poor, wandering one;” the tongue-twisting patter song “I am the very model of a modern major-general;” “A policeman’s lot;” “Climbing over rocky mountain”—a survivor from Thespis, G&S’s lost first stage work; and “With catlike tread,” which, more than a quarter-century later, was given new words as “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here.” At The Egyptian Theatre.
Videos
Kairos
David Henry Hwang Theater (4/4 - 4/28) COMEDY NEW PLAY
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What The Constitution Means To Me
International City Theatre (5/2 - 5/19) | ||
Footloose The Musical
Mira Costa High School (4/26 - 5/4)
PHOTOS
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PRELUDE TO A KISS, THE MUSICAL
South Coast Repertory (4/5 - 5/4) | ||
VOX Cabaret
Catalina Jazz Club (5/5 - 5/5) | ||
Change The Game
McCadden (6/9 - 6/16) NEW MUSICAL
PHOTOS
VIDEOS
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Spring Awakening
The Broadwater Mainstage (4/26 - 5/11) | ||
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra with Gabriela Montero
Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts (5/24 - 5/24) | ||
Mrs. Doubtfire
Pantages Theatre (6/11 - 6/30) | ||
Misalliance
A Noise Within (5/12 - 6/9) | ||
Nora
Antaeus Theatre Company (4/21 - 5/26) | ||
SINGULARITIES or the Computers of Venus
The Road Theatre (4/22 - 6/2) | ||
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