STAGE REVIEW : Pert ‘Pirates’ by Moonlight

Moonlight Amphitheatre, more than most theaters in town, is as much about atmosphere as it is about the show on stage: families with babies stretch out on the ample grassy seating area between rows of chairs. Elaborate picnic baskets and rattling bags of Kentucky Fried Chicken are common, as are popping corks, the snap of flip-top cans, and surreptitious glances at the stars coming out overhead as the show kicks into gear.

As if to acknowledge this, co-directors Gary Krinke and Ray Limon delivered a “Pirates of Penzance” that uses the atmosphere of this bucolic outdoor Vista venue to its greatest advantage.

The Pirate King made his entrance in swashbuckling style--flying down a cable rigged from the highest level of the amphitheatre to a mast-like rigging on top of the stage. The Major-General’s daughters, wearing a bouquet of pastel-colored petticoats under their white pinafores, arrived over a hill to one side of the stage as they sang “Climbing Over Rocky Mountain.”

The purist might wince at the vocal lapses in the chorus and some smaller dramatic players, but the show--a well-made classic to begin with--was carried by the clever staging, the comic turns by some supporting players and, most of all, by the strength of its leads: Dirk Rogers as Frederic, the pirate apprentice, and Katie Jensen as Mabel, Frederick’s sweet-voiced love.

And the Moonlight audience, which always seems predisposed to be pleased, seemed very satisfied by the pirates and the ladies romping up and down the aisles--so much so that there wasn’t a murmur of discontent when the play was interrupted for nearly a half hour as the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department sent a helicopter sweeping overhead in response to a call about “two suspicious adults” in the park. No one answering the description was found, and the show went on. Its run continues through Aug. 9.

“The Pirates of Penzance,” first produced in New York in 1879, is one of the most popular operettas of the Gilbert & Sullivan canon. Subtitled “The Slave of Duty,” it satirizes excessive devotion to duty (as well as cliches about sportsmanship, nobility, royalty, etc.) in the story of a young boy, Frederic, whose servant mistakenly apprentices him to a pirate (she was told to apprentice him to a pilot, but she’s hard of hearing).

Out of a sense of duty, he finishes his apprenticeship. At 21, when his contract expires, he resolves to leave the pirates, discovers true love and sets out to hunt down and bring to justice his former fellows. Until, of course, complications ensue.

Krinke and Limon have taken the 1980 staging by the late Joseph Papp as their model--it’s a fun choice, filled with clever asides and Keystone Cop routines. The orchestrated chaos in the final scene in which the stage has to accommodate the cops hiding, then the pirates hiding, then the Major General’s daughters arriving, is at times dazzling.

Rogers and Jensen are terrific as the romantic leads. He has a tone as rich as molasses and a delivery that is deliciously precise, and he does a great Elvis Presley in his serenade “Oh, Is There Not One Maiden Breast” to the Major General’s daughters. Jensen rises to Mabel’s soprano demands with seeming effortlessness. Both actors are funny, but neither one neglects the feeling they are meant to convey. When these two get together in the tender duet, “All Is Prepared,” the effect is melting.

Moonlight veteran Randall S. Hickman may not deliver on the Gilbert & Sullivan vocal style, but he is very funny as the Pirate King. Ditto Ken Kanniard as Major General Stanley. Florene Villane does well both vocally and dramatically as Frederic’s nurse, Ruth, once she warms up. And Doug Davis is a scene stealer as the Sergeant who ends up literally bouncing off the walls and standing on his head in his attempt to capture the pirate band.

The costumes by Diane R. Mallett are fun, funky and colorful. Don Ertel’s sets, while simple, painted affairs, do their job well, particularly in the final scene where several doors set up the fun. Walt De Jong’s lighting design is a little jumpy, as if it has problems keeping up with this exuberant cast. And James R. Cook’s musical direction keeps Sullivan’s great score moving even when some cast members throw their notes overboard.

“THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE”

Book by W.S. Gilbert. Music by Sir Arthur Sullivan. Co-directors are Gary Krinke and Ray Limon. Musical director is James R. Cook. Musical staging by Ray Limon. Sets by Don Ertel. Costumes by Diane R. Mallett. Lighting by Walt De Jong. Sound by Stuart Holmes. Technical direction by M. Andrew Currey. Stage manager is Dana S. Begg. With Dirk Rogers, Katie Jensen, Randall S. Hickman, Florene Villane, Ken Kanniard, Sean Tamburrino, Doug David, Heather Paige, Susan Pederson and Voiza M. Arnold. At 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays through Aug. 9. Tickets are $6-$14. At Moonlight Amphitheatre in Brengle Terrace Park, 1200 Vale Terrace Drive, Vista, 724-2110.