Review: High Seas Highbrow For The Lowbrow

Pirates of Penzance

Libretto by W.S. Gilbert, Music by Arthur Sullivan, New Adaptation by Sean Graney and Kevin O'Donnell, Arrangements by Kevin O'Donnell and Cast; Set Design, Tom Burch; Costume Design, Alison Siple; Lighting Design, JaRed Moore; Sound Design, Darby Smotherman; Properties Design, Maria DeFabo; Music Director, Andra Velis Simon; Stage Manager, Miranda Anderson; Choreography, Katie Spelman; Directed by Sean Graney

CAST: Robert McLean (Pirate King/Sergeant), Matt Kahler (Major General/Samuel), Zeke Sulkes (Frederic), Christine Stulik (Ruth/Mabel); Ensemble: Ryan Bourque, Kate Carson-Groner, Emily Casey, Dana Omar, Doug Pawlik, Shawn Pfautsch

Performances through June 2 by The Hypocrites at American Repertory Theater, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA; Box Office 617-547-8300 or www.amrep.org

It was an honest mistake on my part. I showed up at Oberon for The Hypocrites' performance of Pirates of Penzance because it's the venue the A.R.T. employs for its audience-inclusive productions, the ones that require people to move around to stay one step ahead of the space where the actors need to be. Imagine my surprise when I was informed that Pirates is docked at the Loeb Drama Center and weighing anchor in the next ten minutes. Shiver me timbers! I set a course for Brattle Street and slipped into the theater about ten minutes after the show launched.

Fortunately for my late entrance, it is the nature of the format that people are constantly roaming around the periphery, being wrangled by the actors or bellying up to the grass shack which serves as a bar. In one particularly distracting case, a young father chased his toddler son from pillar to post, trying to keep him from being disruptive to the musical, but failing miserably. So, the good news was that my tardiness caused no discomfort for anyone; the bad news was that I missed the introductory words of explanation offered by The Hypocrites to acclimate the crowd to their distinctive style and needed some time to get into their rhythm.

It helped that I am familiar with Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Pirates of Penzance because The Hypocrites' version, adapted by Artistic Director Sean Graney and Kevin O'Donnell, is truncated, clocking in at approximately eighty minutes. It is fair to say that they cram quite a bit of material into those eighty minutes, but that doesn't necessarily translate into total clarity of the story. At different points along the voyage, my companion and I each felt at sea. The saving grace is that there's so much else going on to distract and entertain that the plot is almost an afterthought.

Pirates of Penzance is tantamount to a three-ring circus being held at a beach volleyball tournament. There are beach balls, kiddie pools, beach chairs, and the aforementioned shack. The cast performs as roving troubadours, each proficiently playing an instrument (I counted four guitars, a mandolin, a clarinet, a couple of ukuleles, squeezebox, flute, banjo, violin, and spoons). A pier-like platform in the middle of the floor serves as party central, adorned with coolers and flaming (with fake flames) torches, with numerous strings of colored lights hanging overhead, radiating in several directions. In addition to climbing in and out of the pools, the actors encircle the pier and make forays into the audience. These excursions were greeted with delight by most.

Robert McLean (Pirate King), Matt Kahler (Major General), Zeke Sulkes (Frederic), and Christine Stulik (Ruth/Mabel) are the principal players, but the other six members of the ensemble - Ryan Bourque, Kate Carson-Groner, Emily Casey, Dana Omar, Doug Pawlik, and Shawn Pfautsch - are ever-present and make as much of an impression. In fact, my favorite moment in the show is the sweet, slow duet "Sighing Softly to the River" sung by Kahler and Pfautsch. I also got a kick out of Carson-Groner, Casey, and Omar as the three sisters, costumed in tutus and bathing caps. The singing voices are good across the board and the songs are delivered with brio.

As an acting troupe, The Hypocrites fit nicely with the A.R.T. aesthetic, making a strong connection with the audience both physically and emotionally. Graney's vision serves as an introduction to the great work of Gilbert and Sullivan, albeit equivalent to a "Reader's Digest" abridgement, and one might hope that it would motivate the previously uninitiated to learn more about them. As for me, I'm more of a purist and prefer the real thing. Still, the freewheeling Pirates of Penzance might be the right voyage at the right time in a place like Cambridge.

Photo credit: Evgenia Eliseeva (Robert McLean, Zeke Sulkes)

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