Gilbert & Sullivan: The Pirates of Penzance

undefined

Product description ------------------- Live Recorded at the Columbia 30th Street Studio New York New York on February 1 2 & 8 1981.Principal cast: Kevin Kline (Pirate King); Stephan Hanan (Samuel); Rex Smith (Frederic); Estelle Parsons (Ruth); Alexandra Korey (Edith); Marcie Shaw (Kate); Wendy Wolfe (Isabel); Linda Ronstadt (Mabel); George Rose (Major-General Stanley); Tony Azito (The Sergeant).Musicians include: Gary Shocker (harp); Sheryl Henze Keith Underwood (flute); Richard Cohen Steven Hartman (clarinet); Simeon Westbrooke (bassoon); Lauren Draper Ron Stinson John Bova (trumpet); Keith Green (trom); Dan Berlinghoff Allen Shawn Susan Anderson Ada Janik (keyboards); Dennis Masuzzo Michael Tomasulo (bass).Personnel: Gary Schocker (harp); Sheryl Henze Keith Underwood (flute); Steven Hartman Richard Cohen (clarinet); Simeon Westbrooke (bassoon); John Bova Lauren Draper (trumpet); Keith Green (trom); Allen Shawn Dan Berlinghoff Ada Janik Susan Anderson (keyboards); William Ruyle .com ---- Producer Joseph Papp's Broadway spin on Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance cannily employs pop firepower in its casting, adding an inviting Yankee accent to roles normally associated with (and sometimes embalmed in) plummy English locution. Erstwhile country-rocker Linda Ronstadt, who by this point had already proven she could tackle pre-rock pop standards, stretches successfully as its heroine. Rex Smith, then dismissed as a pop-rock heartthrob, proves he could be a "legitimate" musical leading man, a niche he's since inhabited comfortably. And Kevin Kline returns to his stage training as the hearty King of the Pirates. Onstage, Papp celebrated the slapstick possibilities of the deliberately silly plot, which weaves reliably tart observations about class consciousness and gender politics into a pirate band's invasion of a Cornish coastal town. A faithful big-screen adaptation added Angela Lansbury for marquee clout, but even without that grande dame of the Great White Way, this original stage cast is a corker, the music glorious and the performances spirited. --Sam Sutherland