Playwright: Gilbert and Sullivan,
adapted by Mark Savage
At: Bailiwick Repertory, 1229 W. Belmont
Phone: (773) 883-1090; $20-$30
Runs through: July 27
Composer Arthur Sullivan was gay (despite being portrayed as straight in Mike Leigh’s film Topsy Turvy), but the discreetly closeted Victorian was no where near as queer as this show! And hetero wordsmith William Gilbert would have exploded into orbit over this parody. Sailors take warning: if you are Gilbert and Sullivan purists, or believe gay men should not make public fun of their faggotry, do not book passage on this Pinafore! As for the rest of you, sit back, camp it up and enjoy.
Little Buttercup becomes Bitter Butterball, and villainous Dick Deadeye becomes Harry Heavyset, despised for his 40-plus years and paunch. Sir Joseph Porter becomes liberal Senator Barney Crank, in love with the Captain’s son Joseph, now in drag as Josephine. And so it goes at Pinafore! The H.M.S. has been dropped; for while this definitely is a queens’ navy, it is neither Her Majesty’s nor even British, but a gay American ship cruising the seas and (especially) the seaports. After stops at Provincetown and Key West, the Pinafore inexplicably has docked at landlocked Palm Springs.
Sullivan’s tuneful music remains nearly intact but Gilbert’s words do not fare so well, as Mark Savage’s parody changes the female chorus of sisters, cousins and aunts to one of drag queens in sailorette outfits. Yet Savage respects Gilbert’s concepts of humor, adding his gay absurdities to Gilbert’s satire of social class and the navy. Many Savage pokes at politics, political correctness, gay stereotypes and seafood fantasies are as pointed and funny as Gilbert’s. Perhaps a contemporary, liberal Gilbert would approve.
The main thing about any version of Gilbert and Sullivan is that it must be well sung (it IS operetta) and well-enunciated. With Savage as director, and nimble-fingered Peter Storm as piano accompanist, this production scores on both counts, providing attractive, trained singers in all principal roles. Scott O’Brien as Josephine steals the show with his exceptional and powerful mezzo falsetto. As his heroic love interest, Gerald Kelel supplies a lilting tenor. Jamie Axtell as Captain Corcorran sweetly opens Act II with Gilbert’s ode to love and the moon, altered to an ode to big busts. Kinglsey Day adds panache and verbal dexterity as Senator Barney, Tim Howard’s pleasing baritone sparks Harry Heavyset, and Naomi Landman (the lone real female) provides a hearty alto and hefty twin anchors as Butterball.
OK, the acting is stiff. And the show nearly ignores the Palm Springs locale, so why not change it to Saugatuck or Great Lakes? But the costumes and choreography are cute (don’t expect real dance numbers) and so are the chorus boys, and there’s far more singing than talking as Pinafore! plows the waters of musical parody under full sail.