Review: freeFall Theatre's THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE Is Out of This World Fun

What a year freeFall Theatre has had! It started its 2015-2016 season with a cleverly entertaining, but ultimately unnecessary Importance of Being Earnest with Zombies. That was followed by a fine Peter and the Starcatcher and a powerful Our Town (despite the weird Twin Peaksian dancing thrown in for no apparent reason). The joyous Sondheim on Sondheim was followed by the most alienating play of the year, Mr. Burns, which divided viewers by their ages--the younger members of the audience got it while the older people fled the theatre in droves before the second intermission. (It was a play that, to me, seemed more suitable for a company like Jobsite Theater instead of freeFall.) Then there was the highlight of the season, The Light in the Piazza, which I deemed a much-needed tonic for a particular crazy and violent summer.

And now we come to the final show of the year, Gilbert and Sullivan's famous THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, set in outer space. freeFall Theatre calls this literal space operetta "the dessert at the end of the season." That's putting it mildly. This is no mere dessert; it's a lemon meringue ice cream sundae on a brownie with chocolate chip cookie crust, hot fudge syrup, butterscotch, sprinkles, whipped cream, Gummi bears, nuts and a Mars-red cherry on top. It's a feast of sugary goodness, all jumbled together in a delightful heap. Still, it won't quite fill you up, but it's an everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink concoction that you won't soon forget.

The show appropriately starts with the famous Star Wars credit scroll (director Eric Davis' video work here once again puts all others to shame in this department; there's even a Terry Gilliam influence in there), and Act 2 starts with a highly entertaining Star Trek credit sequence. All through the production, music director Michael Raabe's mash-ups between mostly 80's synth-pop and the classic Gilbert and Sullivan melodies surprisingly work wonders. In some ways it acts as the strange merging of Space Invaders and Name That Tune: Here's a riff from "Pour Some Sugar on Me," there's "Time After Time" or "No More Words." The Go-Go's are followed by Journey, with the opening of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" thrown in for good measure. It's terrifically smart and beautifully executed.

As for the performances, they are all top-notched. Nick Lerew gives another stellar performance (literally stellar here, I guess). His Frederic is a blast, and as he proved in The Light in the Piazza, his voice is currently at its finest state. All of his numbers, especially "Stay, Frederic, Stay" (a duet with the incredible Leia-inspired Kaylen Seckel as Mabel), showcase his abilities. He is in true top form.

Although the pirates aren't the most menacing band you'll ever find, their leader, the Pirate King (Hayden Milanes), rocks the house. His voice shakes the rafters, and songs like "Oh Better Far to Live and Die" are brilliantly performed. The Mr. Spock-like Samuel, played by Emanuel Carrero, gives able support.

Sara DelBeato makes for a striking Ruth; she resembles the cross between Ursula and Madame Thernardier, but we feel for her plight. In a particularly ingenious move, the Sergeant of Police and the Police Droid are portrayed as robots not dissimilar to C-3PO and R2D2. The Sergeant of Police (the imposing Robert Teasdale) is a bizarre Blue Meanie of a droid, like something straight out of a Peter Max painting brought to life. And the Police Droid, like a Victorian Era R2D2, is played by the child Will Garrabrant (you may remember him from freeFall's Christmas Carol, Mame and The Importance of Being Earnest with Zombies). Every time they appear together, it's giddy-laughter time; it's just so odd, more 1960's mushroom-chomping hallucinogens than anything from the 1980's.

Kate (Hannah Benitez) and Edith (Kelly Pekar) come across as intergalactic Shangra- La's. Sometimes they seem like Valley Girls (Valley Aliens?), and their bizarre make-up make them look like psychedelic lollipops come to life. They sing quite well, although it's hard to understand their words to "Climbing Up from Under the Hatches."

Glenn Gover's Major General Stanley gets the best entrance of the cast (to the tune of Darth Vader's theme). In his pith helmet, he's over the top for the most part (more so than the rest of the cast), but gloriously watchable nonetheless. And his iconic number, "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General," is a contender for my favorite single moment in any Bay Area show this year. It has to contend with the father-son battle at the end of Act 1 in Jitney, Scott Daniel's show-stopping "You Can't Succeed on Broadway Without Any Jews" from American Stage's Spamalot In the Park, and Nick Lerew's solo, "Love to Me," in The Light in the Piazza. Here, with more than a hint of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (the song AND the lighting from the famous video), is a number so uncannily scrumptious that I didn't want it to end. Of the aforementioned list of great theatrical moments from this year, it stands at the very top.

This is one show that will brighten any dull day. It's like a science fiction acid trip (the ending of 2001 or The Black Hole set to 80's pop songs). It's certainly lighthearted, a beautifully crafted throwaway, like expensive golden paper wrapped around a Frisbee (originally called the Pluto Platter, for those wanting me to keep a space theme). But the whole thing is so much fun, who cares if there isn't any depth? This is the show Return to the Forbidden Planet wants to be.

Matt Davis' set is one of the year's very best, like something out of Alien. Walking into the theatre before the show, hearing the sound effects (wonderful work by Stephen Kraack) and seeing the marvelous set, I felt like I was preparing to ride Star Tours at Disney World. Mike Wood's and Ryan Finzelber's lighting is fantastically out of this world, and Amy J. Cianci's costumes as well as Scott Daniel's wigs are works of art. Tech-wise, this is the show of the year.

Eric Davis needs to be commended for his adaptation of this iconic work as well as for his creatively off-the-charts direction. It makes sense to have so many 80's references music-wise, since the Greed Decade is when THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE made a semi-comeback thanks to the Broadway and film versions. In this interpretation, anything goes, including an electric fan (that must be seen to be believed). There's a little too much "Macarena" in the choreography for my tastes, but I guess nothing is too much when you have a dessert that's this heavy yet thematically light.

As important as Davis is to this production, he is not the star. That honor goes to Michael Raabe, whose music is just wonderfully outlandish and awe-inspiring. He has quite a rollicking group of musicians to work with: Burt Rushing on drums, Paul Stoddart on guitar, and Kenny Walker on bass. They appear (with Raabe on the keyboards) in pirate garb onstage, and boy do they rock!

Although The Light in the Piazza still remains my favorite show of the year, this version of PIRATES includes some of the most memorable numbers I have seen and makes for the perfect punctuation mark (an exclamation point!) on freeFall's season.

The morning after I saw THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, news of the passing of Kenny Baker, the original R2D2, was all over the Internet. He'll always be remembered for playing the world's most famous compact droid, and he'll always be a part of our collective memory (he'll always be alive). And that's the great thing about this freeFall show: In much the same way that the Star Wars franchise will keep Mr. Baker's work alive long after he's gone, freeFall Theatre has turned Gilbert and Sullivan into modern rock stars, and after all these years, they are still alive and kicking (to quote a Simple Minds title from the 1980s).

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE at freeFall Theatre plays until September 4th. For tickets, please call (727) 498-5205.

To post a comment, you must register and login.