PIRATES OF PENZANCE
(Broadway Version)
By Arrangement with Joseph Weinberger Ltd.
Music By Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan.
Lyrics By Sir William Schwenck Gilbert.
The first original performance of "The Pirates of Penzance" opened on the 31st December 1879 at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York. It was an immediate success, taking New York by storm. "pirates" then moved to premier in London, opening on the 3rd April 1880 at the Opera Comique, and ran for 363 performances.
In 1881 the D'Oyly Carte opened the luxurious Savoy Theatre, built exclusively for performances of Gilbert and Sullivan Operas. Opening on 10th October in a blaze of publicity - blaze perhaps being the operative word, for the Savoy was the first theatre in the world to be lit throughout with electricity.
This production of "The Pirates of Penzance"- Broadway version- was commissioned as part of the 1980 New York Shakespeare festival and was first produced in Central Park's open-air Delacorte Theatre. After the summer season, it was transferred to Broadway and arrived in Britain the following year, opening at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on the 26th May 1982.
The Broadway version includes reconstructed ending as well as the song "My eyes are fully open" taken from "Ruddigore".
Many famous names have performed in "Broadway Pirates" both on stage and screen including Michael Ball, Paul Nicholas, Bonnie Langford, Victor Spinetti, Kevin Kline, Linda Ronstadt, Angela Lansbury and Keith Michell.
Set on the shores of Cornwall in Victorian England, apprentice pirate "Fredric" is finally twenty-one, free to marry "Mabel", one of the Major Generals daughters and live a law-abiding like. But "Fredric" seems, was born on 29th February, a leap year, and therefore is still only five!
Realising he is still bound to the "Pirate King" and his pirates for many more years, "Fredric" must now rescue the pirates he has betrayed to the police.
When the pirates are eventually identified as orphaned noblemen, all is forgiven and they marry the remaining Major Generals daughters.
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