The Pirates of Penzance

the late actor who plays the Major-General and the late Tony Azito who is the captain of the constables, were just part of this great cast, this is a great tribute to two men who died so tragically. Can't think of a better venue to showcase all of these actors/actresses and singers all.

I am a true G & S Aficionado but this surprised and delighted me. The cast are brilliant but Kevin Kline has the edge. Agile, in great voice, lots of humour and quick, funny bits in his performance (blink and you miss them). His dancing and acrobatics are superb. The police also had me howling with laughter along with their police dogs and the major general romping through the fields with the pirates singing UNDERWATER in the babbling brook has to be a classic. This scene has to be seen to be believed. Bravo, cast !! This should have had a lot more publicity. I would adore seeing it in the large theatre, at least we had "Topsy Turvy" this year. This Pirate is fun for all ages.

History records that Gilbert and Sullivan were personally often at odds when producing their great comic operettas - no doubt that, if they are still monitoring this, they are surprised to find both their humour and their music - despite its limitations in both time and location - still has a great appeal to audiences throughout much of the world. The music of course is timeless, but music too evolves and many people today have no appreciation of the types of lyrics which G & S exploited so shamelessly. Perhaps the remarkable thing is the wide and continuing appeal of so many of their works. This film is a movie version of a 100th anniversary Broadway stage production of this operetta in New York. A review of previous comments show, not unexpectedly, that it has been adored by numerous G. & S. fans; but that its appeal to those who are not in this category is much more limited. They also make it clear that this is a very fine production; and it would be a serious omission if I did not re-emphasise it is almost a classical example of the way in which a major stage production should be presented on film, both to retain the best of the original production and to as fully as possible exploit the more fluid form of presentation that is possible on the screen.

To your reviewer who reports fears about wearing out her taped version, I would recommend doing what I have done and converting this to a VCD disk that she can play, almost for ever, on her DVD player. It is, I believe, a great film; and my wife and I have also viewed it repeatedly whenever we have been a little "blue", we never fail to feel cheered up afterwards. However we recognise that most members of the contemporary generation would not respond in this way, and that our appreciation will not even be understood by them. We remain thankful that minority tastes can still be satisfied without infringing on the perogatives of the majority, and that in the process of doing so the film will be seen by many who initially have little sympathy with the production, but who find that - as with so many of us in the older generation - they have come to appreciate both its music and its humour.

I first saw this incarnation of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance" at the age of 10, but just recently saw it again when my school decided to perform it for our annual spring musical. At the age of 18, I expected that I would find it immature after having liked it at 10. Needless to say, I was wrong. This is a wonderful adaptation of a great operetta, and becomes even better with the experience of performing it.

Fans of Kevin Kline rejoice! He plays the perfect "Pirate King," the silly leader of a band of pirates who seem to be completely incompetent, if only at piracy. He delivers his lines with precision and, along with David Hatton (Samuel), adds a much needed low bass-baritone to Rex Smith(Frederic) and the rest of the pirates' tenor in the pirate tunes.

The late Tony Azito(Police Sergeant)'s performance is literally unbelievable, as he looks more like a man made out of rubber rather than flesh and bone.

I would recommend this to anyone, especially die hard Gilbert and Sullivan fans.

We start off as a band of pirates approach the town, and the citizens all rush to seek shelter in buildings that are clearly made of canvas and greasepaint... I found that to be quite an useful introduction to this film version of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1870s operetta; it made it clear that this was going to be a stage version on film, rather than any attempt to recreate the story for the cinema. Expectations suitably set - it goes off on a pretty enjoyable romp through this (mixed with one or two other of their works) story of the young "Frederic" (Rex Smith) who has been doing a sort of youth opportunities scheme with a band of ruthless pirates led by Kevin Kline. To stave off this imminent destruction, and the capture of his daughters - the "Maj. General" (George Rose) appeals to their sense of pity by declaring that he is an orphan, and that they wouldn't want to leave an old man lonely and bereft in his latter years. Their evil hearts melt, and his daughters (and the town) are spared. "Frederic" has an encounter on the beach with the beautiful "Mabel" (Linda Ronstadt) - one of the daughters of the old solider and they both fall head over heels in love and all looks set fair. Snag? Well the poor soul was born on the last day of February in a leap year, and has had actually only had five (not twenty one) birthdays - so the terms of his indenture mean he must serve another 60-odd years with the pirates! Luckily for him, "Mabel" agrees to wait for him and what ensues now are a series of gently comedic escapades as their love story develops, and the "Maj. General" and "Pirate King" come to a perilous reckoning before the very timely intervention of Queen Victoria. Accomplished theatre actress Angela Lansbury features, importantly but sparingly, as the deaf old nurse "Ruth" and Tony Azito is quite entertaining as the "sergeant" too. G&S purists might not appreciate the slightly hybrid nature of this effort, but I rather enjoyed the wobbly sets, the scenery clearly made of polystyrene and papier-mâché and the tightly shot photography - it is offering us a variety of theatre seats to watch it from, but we are never in doubt that this is essentially still a stage production. Kline and Smith are on fine form, the latter really takes the part by the scruff of the neck and even though his voice is not quite what it might be, he gives it everything he can and his enjoyment, his daft love scenes and songs with the Golden Globe nominated Ronstadt, along with a soupçon of swash and buckle and plenty of camp humour all keep the momentum moving along nicely. The song of the film is "Model of a Modern Major General" but the patter song works really well too. As cinematic adaptations go, Wilford Leach has allowed the cast to thrive with the colourful, nonsense elements of this story and we are presented with something as akin to that which we might see on stage as possible - and it's good.