Pimping Out Pirates of Penzance
Last night I saw Pirates of Penzance at New Paltz. Chris got me a ticket for the gala night through the theater program, I guess. The show was amazing. The score is difficult to sing (it's an opera, somehow this fact evaded me till last night) so they have two casts. I saw the "second" cast, who Chris says is not as good, but I thought they were all great, soooo I didn't mind.
The show was pretty hilarious, though moreso from the writing or acting I couldn't say. The set was minimal. It was set up like a radio broadcast with an live audience, more like an "in concert" show than a true musical. There were five microphones on the front of the stage, a bandstand on the left, and chairs for the chorus on the right, with the conductor and a grand piano in the middle. There were four lights above the stage reading "Stand by", "On air", "Applause" and "Encore". They would light up depending on what was happening on stage (for example, intermission had "stand by", acting and singing was "on air", the end of songs flashed "applause", and for particularly awesome numbers there was "encore"). The pirates were my favorites. They were hysterical, particularly the pirate king (who was awesome and knew it). I also really liked the major general, which was funny. They had him start out as a sort of stagehand, running scripts back and forth between actors and handing out props. The concept was that the man who was to play the major general had never showed for the show, and so the actors force the stagehand to play the role (which provided many LOLs).
Chris thinks the girls were the funniest...they were funny, and their singing was good, but eh...I was more amused by preeetty much everything else, except maybe in the number where they tell Scotland Yard to "go forth" and fight, and Scotland Yard is like "...um...no....".
The quality of productions here continues to amaze me, actually. Urinetown was amazing, and so was this show (and King Lear). I really need to see more theater here. I am looking forward to Antigone.
If I have the time and means, I may go see the first cast some other time, though the shows here are a little expensive. I got to go to the gala night for free, via Chris, but other than that tickets are $8 on Thursday (not bad at all) and $16 on Friday-Saturday (pretty pricey). It was a really nice production, though. I recommend that any one who has an opportunity to go definitely should.
Side Note: My Egypt professor just told us that the hieroglyphics of a vagina and a penis, together, literally translates to "girly man". Yeah...yeah........
The show was pretty hilarious, though moreso from the writing or acting I couldn't say. The set was minimal. It was set up like a radio broadcast with an live audience, more like an "in concert" show than a true musical. There were five microphones on the front of the stage, a bandstand on the left, and chairs for the chorus on the right, with the conductor and a grand piano in the middle. There were four lights above the stage reading "Stand by", "On air", "Applause" and "Encore". They would light up depending on what was happening on stage (for example, intermission had "stand by", acting and singing was "on air", the end of songs flashed "applause", and for particularly awesome numbers there was "encore"). The pirates were my favorites. They were hysterical, particularly the pirate king (who was awesome and knew it). I also really liked the major general, which was funny. They had him start out as a sort of stagehand, running scripts back and forth between actors and handing out props. The concept was that the man who was to play the major general had never showed for the show, and so the actors force the stagehand to play the role (which provided many LOLs).
Chris thinks the girls were the funniest...they were funny, and their singing was good, but eh...I was more amused by preeetty much everything else, except maybe in the number where they tell Scotland Yard to "go forth" and fight, and Scotland Yard is like "...um...no....".
The quality of productions here continues to amaze me, actually. Urinetown was amazing, and so was this show (and King Lear). I really need to see more theater here. I am looking forward to Antigone.
If I have the time and means, I may go see the first cast some other time, though the shows here are a little expensive. I got to go to the gala night for free, via Chris, but other than that tickets are $8 on Thursday (not bad at all) and $16 on Friday-Saturday (pretty pricey). It was a really nice production, though. I recommend that any one who has an opportunity to go definitely should.
Side Note: My Egypt professor just told us that the hieroglyphics of a vagina and a penis, together, literally translates to "girly man". Yeah...yeah........