Newspaper Article

Troupe Sets Sail With 'Pinafore'

Toscano, Michael

2002

Overview

Still, [Gilbert] and [Sullivan]'s work isn't everyone's cup of tea, with fussy little plots, cartoon characters and operatic singing. Credit, therefore, must be given to the Arlington Players for producing a straightforward version of \"H.M.S. Pinafore\" that its authors would recognize and enjoy. It's a ridiculous tale of forbidden love and mistaken identities that Gilbert wrote as an assault on the class snobbery he saw in the English social system of his day. Despite the serious theme, \"H.M.S. Pinafore\" is filled with Sullivan's lively melodies and Gilbert's witty lyrics, which director Malcolm Edwards presents in a visually rich and smoothly moving production. Socially ambitious Captain Corcoran of the Pinafore wants to marry his daughter, Josephine, to Admiral Sir Joseph Porter, a pompous aristocrat with populist pretensions, even though she and a lowly seaman named Ralph Rackstraw are in love. Josephine is willing to submit to her father's wishes, but a local peddler woman named Buttercup steps in to proclaim that things may not be what they seem. Notions of rank and privilege are tweaked; characters exchange places; and in true Gilbert and Sullivan form, love conquers all. Director Edwards has seen to it that the love songs are played straight, while the rest of the show is imbued with a sophisticated sense of humor.

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• Subject: H.M.S. Pinafore / Theater