Size isn’t everything. But “Pirates of Penzance” is a big, bold, broad shouldered, boisterous bunch. It needs room to breathe. The PUD didn’t have enough when they did it there, HET does and the difference is spectacular. The Savoyards’ “Pirates” at Historic Everett Theatre is Gilbert and Sullivan, pretty much realized.
Forget a ruthless, raping, pillage band of buccaneers sailing the seven seas. These are pirates in name only. They are confined to living life in an isolated cove because they’ve got no stomach for violence and can’t stand to hurt anybody’s feelings. They are wimps.
And bachelors with maidens on their minds.
Enter lovelies who catch their eye; and presto, this first in a series of highly improbable situations starts mushrooming up into an explosion of song, dance and farce. Motivations are ridiculous. Complications multiply. Tongue-twisting lyrics are dashed with innuendo. The score is ingeniously tongue-in-cheek.
Think all of that. Think a cast of more than 35 and an orchestra close to 20. Then credit Lisa Thiroux and David Spring. Thiroux’ directing and Spring’s musical directing pulls it all into a fanfare of uproarious hilarity, one you can’t help but laugh yourself silly watching.
For comic-book timing, look and pure theater, you can’t beat Don Spiers. His Major General Stanley fathering a bevy of shy and giggling daughters, sputters, spouts and freeze-frames to divine effect. Here and there, Spiers’s line delivery could do with a little less machine gun. Gilbert’s marvelous lyrics sometimes come out hard to understand.
A funnier Ruth than Laura Abel’s you’d have to hold a nationwide star search for. Abel’s got Bette Midler’s big mouth, big voice and big presence. She’s terrific.
Matthew Lauckhart and Ila Faubion are the sweethearts who win you over. Lauckhart starts a little slow but picks up as he goes along. Faubion, start to finish, is femininity personified with a lovely voice.
No exception here. Color and flair characterize costume designs by Barbara Anderson. Sullivan’s score and Spring’s musicianship match up, down and sideways; no surprise.
This is Gilbert and Sullivan with pirates carrying on like pirates, in the balcony when you come in and in the balcony during the performance. The whole show is robust, interactive and calibrated to engage. Go open to it. You’ll feel the spirit.
Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at entopinion@heraldnet.com or grayghost7@comcast.net.
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