The Pirates of Penzance

The show that's guaranteed to make Roger jolly!

The secret of the show's success is its combination of silly/satirical humour and glorious music. Gilbert's story satirises blind devotion to duty, patriotism, nouveau riche snobs, the duplicity of "respectable" society - all topical themes for Victorians which still have a resonance today. And there's a strong strain of pure "topsy-turvydom" - pirates whose first act towards their beautiful female abductees is a proposal of marriage, the very idea of pirates having formal apprenticeships - which is irresistible.

The music, meanwhile, is straight out of grand opera, with Sullivan producing perhaps the richest and most tuneful of his scores. Featuring a succession of justly famous songs - including "I am a Pirate King", "Climbing over rocky mountain", "Poor wand'ring one", "I am the very model of a modern Major-General", "Hail poetry!", "With cat-like tread" and, of course, "A policeman's lot is not a happy one" - packed into a running time of under two hours, Pirates may hold the record for the most hits per minute!

The result is a near-perfect combination - people who come for the music are seduced by the ridiculous but very straight-faced story, and vice versa. It's also great fun to perform, with the male chorus alternating between rollicking pirates and pusillanimous policemen, while the ladies cavort about on a day at the seaside and stand up to their unsuitable suitors.

The downside of being performed countless times over a century and a quarter is that Pirates can seem a bit over-familiar and stale. However, newLOG's 2005 production retained a traditional look while offering a fresh and dynamic staging.

The Gilbert and Sullivan website has a wealth of information about Pirates generally, including a downloadable libretto, at http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/pirates/html/pirates_home.html