Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates Of Penzance has been delighting the world for a whopping 140 years, though you’d hardly guess its age, not with a libretto as fresh and funny as the latest live-audience sitcom, and certainly not as directed, choreographed, and performed with effervescence and charm at Glendale Centre Theatre.

It helps of course that pirate stories seem never to go out of fashion, and Pirates Of Penzance (or The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty as it was originally titled) fills the stage with pirates, pirates, and more pirates, among them Frederic (Peter Easton), who’s spent almost all of his twenty-one years aboard ship.

As to how young Frederic ended up apprenticed to a Pirate King (Nick Waaland) and his band of buccaneers, well the culprit for that sad twist of fate turns out to be his lifelong nursemaid Ruth (Adelaide Sinclair), whose unfortunate hearing impairment confused the “l” in “pilot” with the “r” in “pirate,” and the rest as they say is history.

Fortunately for Freddy, his apprenticeship is set to end in a matter of hours when he turns twenty-one, at which time the young pirate’s thoughts can turn freely from larceny to love, though since the only woman he’s ever seen is the ever so matronly Ruth, Frederic can’t help wondering if she is in fact as fine a female as she claims to be.

Indeed, it’s not until he spots Major General Stanley’s (Craig Sherman) nine comely daughters that Fred receives visual proof that there actually are younger, more beauteous maidens to choose from, and since the blondest among them (Devon Davidson as Mabel) is more than willing to wed the shaggy-haired pirate hunk, the betrothed couple have only to wait a few more hours till the 20-year-old turns 21.

There’s just one hitch, though since said hitch isn’t revealed till midway through Act Two, I suggest you skip the program’s spoiler of a synopsis and wait to be surprised.

Composer Arthur Sullivan’s eminently sing-along tunes are instantly recognizable as his own, and if W.S. Gilbert’s lyrics are often so convoluted as to become virtually incomprehensible when sung, they are as masterfully clever as can be, as when Major General Stanley declares at breakneck speed, “I am the very model of a modern Major-General, I’ve information ve-ge-ta-ble, animal, and mineral.”

Librettist Gilbert’s snappy repartee proves to be as sitcom-ready as next week’s Will & Grace. Take for instance the punchline Fred delivers in the following exchange with the hefty middle-aged Ruth:

Fred: Compared with other women, are you beautiful?
Ruth: I have been told so, dear master.
Fred: Ah … but lately?

Talk about fresh and sassy, adjectives that apply equally to Zoe Bright’s direction, to choreographer Paul Reid’s exuberant, amusing dance steps, and to the performances delivered in-the-round by an all-around splendid GCT cast.

Recent East Coast-transplant Easton gives Frederic plenty of young-Brad-Pitt panache and terrific vocals opposite L.A. favorite Davidson’s enchanting Mabel, who’s not above showing off her coloratura high notes to put her eight sisters to shame.

Sherman’s wizened pixie of a Major General proves the evening’s most memorable scene stealer, Sinclair is a hoot as Ruth, Waaland’s Pirate King swashbuckles with the best of them, Andreas Pantazis makes for a commanding Samuel, and Emily Rose Lezin (Edith) and Elizabet Manchola (Kate) impress as the sole Stanley sisters (other than Mabel) to merit first names.

Philip McBride gives silent movie comics a run for their money as do his Keystone Cops-inspired underlings Grant Hansen, Greg Hardash, Trevor March, and Corydon Melgoza, all of whom double as pirates alongside their amusingly individualized mateys Matthew Ingraham, Ryan Murphy, Dash Potter, and Michael Strauss.

As for Mabel, Edith, and Kate’s sisters, Aubrie Alexander, Amelia Comacho, Danielle Miyazaki, Courtney Reece, Megan Ruble, and Britta Sterling are as lovely and legit-voiced as they come.

The program credits Reid as light & sound designer, Theresa Burnell as lighting designer, and Trey Douglas as sound designer, all of whom make Manke’s colorful Victorian-era costumes and James Wilson’s piratical props look even more picture-perfect while adeptly mixing cast vocals (under Steven Applegate’s assured musical direction) with prerecorded tracks.

Pirates Of Penzance is produced by Brenda Dietlein. James Coblentz is stage manager. Wayne Alves Of Long Beach donated props.

Arguably the most enduring of Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic operas (and the only one to have gotten an ‘80s Broadway revival headed by movie star Kevin Kline, Oscar winner Estelle Parsons, teen idol Rex Smith and pop diva Linda Ronstadt), Pirates Of Penzance proves every bit as enchanting in 2019 as it did when New York first discovered it back in 1879.

Glendale Centre Theatre, 324 N. Orange St., Glendale. www.glendalecentretheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
April 4, 2019
Photos: Dennis Stover

Tags: Gilbert And Sullivan, Glendale Centre Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review