By Mary Bishop
My girlfriends and I went to view the Pirates of Penzance at the Star Theater in Oceanside on opening night this weekend. The theater is a historic theater that originally opened in 1956 that I’ve driven by a million times but have never frequented until now. A friend was performing in the show, and we thought it would be fun to support her. I was not familiar with the storyline and decided to “Google” it before the show. David Schulz’s production of The Pirates of Penzance is a fresh take on one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s popular comic operas which originally premiered in New York City in 1879. The story follows a young man named Frederic, an orphan, who was mistakenly indentured to a band of sentimental pirates. Frederic is supposed to have served his time by his 21st birthday and is celebrating his release of duty when he finds out that due to his leap year birthday, he’s only had five birthdays and needs to serve another 63 years, an “ingenious paradox”. He keeps his vow and remains with the pirates but happens to see a truly beautiful woman for the first time and ends up falling for Mabel, who is one of Major General Stanley’s many daughters. His only solace for the remainder of his service is that Mabel agrees to wait for him.
The opera is characterized by patter songs which are fun, silly tongue twisters executed at a very fast tempo. The patter songs throughout the production are done exceptionally well and just when you think the tempo couldn’t get any faster, they get faster making them even more silly and comical.
We were truly wowed by the cast and the professional level of this local performance. The skills needed to time the vocals, choreography, and get the lyrics correct must have been very difficult, especially in the short five-week period they had to prepare for this performance. There is a lot of talent amongst the cast members. The two young actors that played Frederic (Jake Noren) and Mabel (Cassidy McCleary) had particularly powerful voices. They have performed in a slew of other performances and I’d love to see them perform again. Other characters we enjoyed were the Pirate King, Ruth, and of course Major General Stanley. The characters played their parts well and were sassy and flamboyant.
The set designs were simple but enough to set the scene and give the impression that was needed. The costumes were well done and were appropriate for the storyline.
I would love to see this performance again. It was joyful, fun, and simply a good time and appropriate for any age. It runs one more weekend, July 22, 23, and 24.
