Lamplighters Music Theatre opens it's 58th season with Gilbert & Sullivan’s swashbuckling comedy The Pirates of Penzance. Wacky, irreverent, and as entertaining today as it was when it first opened in 1879, Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates Of Penzance follows the story of an orphan boy who was mistakenly apprenticed to a pirate instead of a pilot. A hilarious farce featuring sentimental pirates, bumbling policemen, dewy-eyed daughters, and an eccentric Major General, and peppered with unforgettable melodies and tongue-twisting songs such as I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General and Poor Wandering One, Pirates is one of the most popular operettas ever written.
When Frederic was a child, Ruth, his nurse, was instructed to apprentice him to be a pilot. Being hard of hearing she misunderstood and instead apprenticed him to be a pirate, taking a job as the pirates’ maid-of-all-work in order to be by his side. Having finally reached the age of twenty-one, and having dutifully served his piratical apprenticeship, Frederic is preparing to leave. With just half an hour left to serve, Frederic warns the Pirate King that he plans to renounce piracy and, since it is a dishonest business, will devote himself to drive it out of existence. He urges the pirates to join him in embracing a lawful calling but they refuse.
Ruth pleads with Frederic to marry her and take her with him. Frederic has never seen another woman and has no way of knowing whether Ruth is as beautiful as she tells him. Nor is he sure how he feels about taking a forty-seven year old wife. Just then a group of young girls, wards of Major General Stanley, appear. At once Frederic sees that they are beautiful – in contrast with Ruth’s plainness – and renounces her. Soon Frederic is attempting to attract the girls and Mabel takes an interest. As he woos her, the pirates return and seize the girls, determined to marry them on the spot. Opportunely, the Major General arrives and dissuades the pirates from their dastardly plan. He has heard that they show sympathy towards orphans and tells them that he is one. Sure enough they agree to free his wards.
The Major General has taking to spending sleepless nights brooding on account of his lie to the pirates. He is consoled only by his wards’ sympathy and Frederic’s plan of leading a band of police against the pirates. The police arrive and are enthusiastically sent off by the Major General and the girls, leaving Frederic alone.
The Pirate King and Ruth appear and confront Frederic with some news of their own. They have discovered an amusing paradox: his indenture was to run out on his twenty-first birthday, and since he was born on February 29, he is really only five! Obeying the dictates of his strong sense of duty, Frederic immediately rejoins the pirates. He tells them that the Major General is not really an orphan and they declare revenge. Awaiting the perfect opportunity, they sneak up on the Major General and capture him. Just in the nick of time, the police come to the rescue and charge the pirates to yield, which they do. Ruth explains that pirates are really “all noblemen who have gone wrong” and they are pardoned and allowed to marry the girls.
- Venue: Lesher Center for the Arts, Hofmann Theater
- Date: Thu July 29, 2010 8:00pm
- City: Walnut Creek
- Price Range: $17-50
- Tickets: 925-943-7469
Fri July 30, 2010 8:00pm
Lesher Center for the Arts, Hofmann Theater
Sat July 31, 2010 8:00pm
Lesher Center for the Arts, Hofmann Theater
Sat July 31, 2010 2:00pm
Lesher Center for the Arts, Hofmann Theater
Sat August 7, 2010 8:00pm
Lincoln Theater
Sun August 8, 2010 3:00pm
Lincoln Theater
Sat August 14, 2010 8:00pm
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts
Sun August 15, 2010 2:00pm
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts
Thu August 19, 2010 8:00pm
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Novellus Theater
Fri August 20, 2010 8:00pm
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Novellus Theater
Sat August 21, 2010 2:00pm
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Novellus Theater
Sat August 21, 2010 8:00pm
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Novellus Theater
Sun August 22, 2010 2:00pm
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Novellus Theater
Fri August 27, 2010 8:00pm
Bankhead Theater
Sat August 28, 2010 2:00pm
Bankhead Theater
Sat August 28, 2010 8:00pm
Bankhead Theater
Sun August 29, 2010 2:00pm
Bankhead Theater
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Program
Gilbert & SullivanThe Pirates of Penzance
