The New York City Opera’s new production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ever popular operetta, The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty , a co-production with Glimmerglass Opera, is a merry, boisterous show inspired by the antics of Monty Python. Director Lillian Groag has chosen to see Pirates as a product of its generation and satirizes late Victorian culture and preoccupations. Savoyard purists can remain calm: this does not get in the way of the original text or music. The cast includes Broadway musical comedy stars Marc Kudisch, currently on leave from The Apple Tree , and Marc Jacoby, seen last season in John Doyle’s version of Sweeney Todd . They fit themselves appropriately into Groag’s concept and the City Opera regular ensemble without turning their roles into star-stealing turns.

Groag begins her merry-making with the overture. When the curtain goes up four ladies at a seaside resort are watching a sort of Punch and Judy show on an inner stage made up of Monty Python-esque black and white cutouts: a Pirate ship chases and attacks the HMS Pinafore and the HMS Titanic . Gilbert and Sullivan take a dip in the ocean. Verdi and Wagner put in disapproving appearances. A pirate tiptoes in and attempts to get too friend with one of the ladies. When the operetta begins, there are stage boxes on one side of the stage in which appear such Victorian icons as Alice in Wonderland and Queen Victoria. Her Majesty later put in an appearance in the first act beach scene serving tea, while young ladies chase butterflies or read Karl Marx.

Set designer John Conklin has designed 19th century-style scenery with multiple drops and furniture that has to be carried on and off stage. Often there seems to be too much scenery on stage as though leftover from another opera. The conceit seems to be that this is a 19^th century touring company that hasn’t quite gotten its act together and it is a quite amusing notion. Stage hands wearing jackets labeled “D’ Oyly Carte” (the first producer of Pirates ) move scenery in full view of the audience. None of this or the other visual gags get in the way of the plot. It only adds to the fun. After all, Sullivan includes parodies of musical moments from both Verdi’s Aida and Il Trovatore, as well as a send up of the typical Donizetti mad scene.

Pirate King Marc Kudisch captures Mark Jacoby as Major-General Stanley with his many daughters
(photo credit: Carol Rosegg)

The plot concerns the 21^st birthday of Frederic, the slave of duty, who had been apprenticed to become a “pirate” rather than a “pilot,” due to the poor hearing of his nursery maid Ruth. Now that he had fulfilled his obligations to the pirates of Penzance (one of England’s seaside resorts) and plans to depart from them, Ruth (who has joined the pirates out of shame) wishes Frederic to take her with him. Having never seen another woman, Frederic believes her to be a great beauty. With that, they are interrupted by a bevy of true beauties, the young wards of Major-General Stanley. Just as Frederic becomes engaged to Mabel, the youngest, the pirates seize the rest of the young ladies to become their brides. When the Major-General appears, he reveals to the pirates that he is an orphan like them, and the tender-hearted pirates allow the family to leave along with the now released 21 year old Frederic.

From the Major-General’s estate, Frederic prepares to lead a band of policemen against the pirates. The Pirate King and Ruth appear to tell him that since he was born on the 29^th of February he has not had the 21 birthdays required by his contract. Frederic, once again a pirate, feels honor bound to tell them that Major-General Stanley lied about his orphan status and the Pirate King vows his revenge.

That night the Pirates storm the Major-General’s estate and easily defeat the policemen. Ordered to surrender in the name of Queen Victoria, the pirates immediately do so. When it is revealed that they are noblemen who have gone wrong, they are reunited with the Major-General’s wards and Frederic is reunited with Mabel.

Sarah Jane McMahon as Mabel and Matt Morgan as Frederic
(photo credit: Carol Rosegg)

Without giving Errol Flynn too much to worry about, baritone Kudisch has a good time as a sort of second-string swashbuckling pirate. Tenor Jacoby does well by the Major-General’s famous and notoriously difficult, “I am the very model of a modern Major-General,” though he is at times defeated by the tricky acoustics of the New York State Theatre. However, with the super titles one cannot to miss a word. Soprano Sarah Jane McMahon makes a lovely Mabel with an impressive coloratura and a mean cartwheel which she uses to exit the stage after her second act aria. Tenor Matt Morgan as Frederic is charming as the innocent but upright young Englishman.

Kevin Burdette’s timid Sergeant of Police is hilarious particularly at the head of his Keystone Kops in the “When a Felon’s Not Engaged in His Employment” number which ends with choreographer Lynne Hockney’s Rockettes chorus line complete with high kicks from the mustachioed force. Myrna Paris puts her contralto to good use as Ruth in both her duets with Morgan and her trios with him and Kudisch. Erin Elizabeth Smith and Heather Johnson are delightfully pert as Mabel’s sisters Edith and Kate, respectively.

Conductor Gerald Steichen keeps Sullivan’s lilting score cascading out of the orchestra without overpowering the singers. The eye-filling Victorian gowns for the bevy of beauties and equally colorful outfits for the band of pirates have been designed by Jess Goldstein. Not seen at the City Opera since 1977, The Pirates of Penzance as staged by Lillian Groag is a delightfully witty treat for young and old alike.

The Pirates of Penzance (in repertory through March 31)

New York State Theater, at Lincoln Center (63^rd Street and Columbus Ave.,) in Manhattan