Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Rosé: The Pirates of Penzance Kill it at Cape Rep Theater

Take a musical written to satirize society in 1880 Cornwall and transport it to 2024 Cape Cod—which is still in for its own share of satire—and you have Cape Rep Theater’s new production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. And it is nothing short of wonderful.

The story itself begs for the dunes/lighthouse setting given it with such remarkable skill by Ryan McGettigan, involving as it does a group of unruly but kindhearted pirates (think Captain Jack Bellamy with a little less history); a young man trying to find himself; a superannuated retiree dwelling in the past; and young women having a good time at the beach … it’s definitely a Cape Cod tale.

Frederic (Aamar-Malik Culbreth) has just turned twenty-one, age that marks the end of his apprenticeship/indenture to a band of pirates. He believes the pirate way of life is wicked, and that the crew should consider a respectable lifestyle.

The Pirate King (Lee Cohen) claims that, compared to a “respectable” lifestyle, piracy is straightforward and honest—and it’s hard to argue with him there, whether it’s in G&S’s Britain or our own United States. Unlike those few profiting hugely in post-industrial-revolution Britain and America, this group is pirating economically in the red since they wouldn’t think of stealing from an orphan, leading to Frederic’s conclusion that “everyone we capture says he’s an orphan! The last three ships we took proved to be manned entirely by orphans, and so we had to let them go. One would think that Great Britain’s mercantile navy was recruited solely from her orphan asylums!”

So Frederic prepares to leave the pirate ship, along with his nursemaid Ruth (Holly Hansen) who’s hoping they might stick together in some weird transition from nursemaid to lover. On the beach, they stumble upon a group of beautiful sisters (Hailey Deltano, Ellie McNally, Elle Krebs, and Perry Gill). One of them, Mabel (Juliet Pearson), quickly jumps in and steals Frederic’s admittedly pretty-easy-to-steal heart.

The pirates (Alex Murray, Ari Lew, Mo O’Neill, Justin Torrellas, Davis Parks) return to storm the beach and capture the young women, intending to marry them (no raping and pillaging here). The women’s father, the Major-General (Jared Hagan) arrives objecting to his daughters being married against their will. Apparently au courant with the softhearted piratical code, he begs the pirates to remember he’s also an orphan. (Credit where credit is due: he feels bad, later, about having lied.)

With the zeal of the converted, Frederic has assembled a police sergeant (Bryan George Rowell) and group of constabulary to help take on the pirates and force them to stop their dastardly deeds. But in a plot twist, Ruth and the Pirate King first take Frederic aside and confide a paradox to him: yeah, he’s technically of age, but he was born on February 29^th, and—sorry, old man—his indenture states he must pass twenty-one birthdays before being set free. Ever the rule-follower, Frederic switches sides yet again and informs the Pirate King of the impending attack. He also meets with Mabel to tell her of his plight, and they agree to be faithful to each other until his return—though she does the math rather ruefully, putting their reunion somewhere around the year 2080.

The pirates attack and easily subdue the police. The sergeant begs for mercy in the name of Queen Victoria, and everyone chimes in, for of course everyone loves the queen, giving G&S the opportunity to poke great fun at Royals and royalists alike. Ruth carries the satire a step further and reveals that the pirates are themselves in fact nobility: “They are no members of the common throng; they are all noblemen who have gone wrong!” The pirates free the Major-General out of loyalty to the queen (and he wonderfully, briefly transforms himself into her); the Major-General gives all his daughters’ hands in marriage to the pirates (well, they are, after all, nobility!); the play ends on a happy note for all concerned. Who knows, perhaps the only single people left, Ruth and the Major-General, will have a fling.

Now that you know the story, imagine this: instead of uniformed bobbies armed with nightsticks, picture a bunch of lifeguards armed with rescue boards (well, to be fair, they all carry whistles!). Instead of a stiff, uniformed Major-General, imagine the ever-brilliant-but-especially-so-here Hagan in off-duty Coast Guard t-shirt and shorts. His daughters have traded in taffeta and petticoats for shorts and  swimsuit cover-ups. And the pirates toast their accomplishments with the ubiquitous red plastic cups of the drunken Cape; the Pirate King demonstrates his prowess with a sword by playing it in air-guitar mode. And that’s just a taste of the updated delights awaiting the audience.

As much as the actors are good—and they truly all are—the artistic and production staff has outdone itself. It’s thanks to director Sarah Elizabeth Wansley’s vision that the production feels this fresh and relevant, appealing to a wide audience. (I noticed two boys near me in the theater—maybe eight or ten years old? They were absolutely rapt, eyes big as saucers, throughout both acts.)

The music (with musicians cleverly concealed behind McGettigan’s sand dunes) was, of course, the core of the play—it’s not called light opera for nothing. Musical director Scott Storr returned to Cape Rep after a hiatus and his deft touch with all the music—instrumental and vocal—is apparent throughout.

A friend told me once that Gilbert & Sullivan is tricky to produce because one needs not one, or two, but a substantial number of exceptional vocalists—and that’s exactly what Cape Rep has delivered. Hagan’s voice just goes from strength to strength—along with longtime audiences, I’ve had the opportunity to see and hear him mature into it; but also phenomenal is Pearson’s swooping, trilling soprano that’s more like pure birdsong than a human voice. Culbreth sounds appropriately young and manly, and Deltano’s voice is melt-in-your-mouth rich—it’s easy to see why jazz is one of her genres.

Robin McLoughlin made some bold decisions with costuming and they’re all pretty much spot-on. And Brianna Mercado’s choreography is impressively diverse: spare at times, lush at others, always engaging and with just the right touch of self-deprecating lightness.

It would be easy to call out every single person who worked on this production; it’s as near perfection as any theater, anywhere, can get. If you haven’t seen Gilbert & Sullivan, come try it out. If you’ve already seen Gilbert & Sullivan—trust me, you haven’t seen it like this. Cape Rep has outdone itself for fun, laughter, and just the smallest subtle touch of cynicism.

The cast knows what it’s doing and cannot, literally or figuratively, put a foot wrong; but they also all seem to be enjoying themselves so thoroughly that the audience is pulled in and pulled along painlessly.

But audiences would be mistaken to think any of this is easy. Gilbert & Sullivan scores are notoriously difficult to sing, perhaps because they combine parody with intense vocal requirements and a very quick tongue for enunciation. It looks easy because Cape Rep makes it look easy; don’t be fooled. They remind us why Pirates has been a classic for so long while at the same time managing to make it feel completely modern, relevant, and delightful. Five stars!

Review by Jeannette de Beauvoir

Photos by Bob Tucker/Focalpoint studio

Cape Rep Theater, Brewster: July 30, 2024—August 25, 2024, Tuesday through Saturday 7:30 pm, Sunday 2 pm. Caperep.org