The role of the Major General in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance isn’t for slouches. One has to patter with
the best of them, twisting the tongue around lines like “I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies/ I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes.” One has to appear in Victorian nightgown. And one has to manhandle a monocle with aplomb.
In The Skylight’s irresistible production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic classic, Gary Briggle does all this. And much, much more. You know a performer is committed to his craft when he takes his mock ballet dance number all the way down to a full Pavlova. When the sobbing Briggle blows his nose during a song – “Oh, dry the glist’ning tear” – he does it on pitch, timed perfectly to the final chord.
But Briggle’s performance is just one of the delights of Bill Theisen’s production, a perfect blend of camp, color and comedy. As any Savoyard worth his salt knows, Gilbert and Sullivan is all about style and tone, and Theisen and his cast and crew are spot on. Niffer Clarke’s Mabel is part hummingbird and part panther. Tenor Robert Boldin perfectly captures the dewy-eyed,-dutiful Frederic. Soprano Diane Lane somehow manages to transform herself into a plain and desperate spinster, and again (in act two) into a pirate who certainly knows how to buckle a swash. Peter Clark gives an imposing carriage to the Pirate King in both body and voice. And John Muriello seems to step right off a Mack Sennett set, leading his troupe of Bobbies into the fray.
Jamie Johns’ orchestra was nimble and tuneful, even when tempos diverged a bit. And the ensemble of singing actors was true to all of Sullivan’s great melodies and choruses. With spring waning into summer, this isn’t an easy time for theaters to draw people in from the golf courses and barbecues, but this Pirates deserves a full house for the duration of its short run. ‘Twould be both a pleasure and a duty.
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