Rex Smith starred on Broadway as Frederic, the young pirate apprentice, in Joseph Papp's award-winning production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance." He also starred, opposite Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline, in the Universal film version, in the same role. Frederic, as the plot of Pirates makes clear, is just 21.
"Pirates of Penzance" takes place on Frederic's twenty-first birthday. There is no question that Smith is a little older now than he was when he was staring on Broadway in "Pirates." He has gone on to star in "The Human Comedy," "Grand Hotel," "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and, most recently, Annie Get Your Gun.
" So for last year's Bellflower Civic Auditorium production of "Pirates of Penzance," Smith was promoted, as befits his experience and his age. He was no longer an apprentice just discovering love in the arms of his beloved Mabel. He became a Pirate King, the Pirate King, And he's repeating the role in Musical Theatre West's production of "Pirates," which opens Saturday at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach,.
The king's crew of inept brigands can sing and dance with delightful energy, but can never actually capture a ship. They have sworn never to harm orphans, since they are orphans themselves and, surprisingly, every ship they attack turns out to have a crew entirely made up of orphans. Such is the upside-down world of "Pirates of Penzance," one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most beloved musicals, a show which premiered not in London but in New York in 1879.
There were no international copyright laws then and the show opened in New York, so it could get an American copyright to prevent it being performed by, er, musical pirates. It is a world where duty matters before all, where young Frederic cannot escape his pirate apprenticeship because he has signed on until his 21st birthday, and though he has turned 21, he finds that his birthday, Feb. 29, will not have occurred 21 times until 1940.
He is torn between his love for Mabel, the loveliest of Major General Stanley's daughters, and his duty to the Pirate King. It is a world where pirates capture young women and carry them off to the local clergyman to marry them. A world where a major general has nightmares about lying to his pirate captors, and where the police can sing, in four-part harmony, about their fear of battle.
A world, finally, where Gilbert's inventive wit and Sullivan's extraordinary music find a sensible Victorian solution to Frederic's conflict. A world which Rex Smith is ecstatic to return to. "I'm the heir apparent," he said of his role in a recent between-rehearsals phone call.
"It is the best example I can think of playing the part you are supposed to play. It came as a serendipitous - is that the right word? - time in my life when I was looking for a role.
All the sea lanes led me back to Penzance." The Joseph Papp production of "Pirates," in which Smith starred on Broadway and in film, was an adaptation of the G and S original, with the first New York finale included, and Sullivan's music arranged for an electrified band. The MTW production, Smith said, is the original version, not the copyrighted new one.
This is a nonprofit organization, and they decided to do the version that is in the public domain. "Gilbert and Sullivan is the Shakespeare of musical comedy," Smith said. "There would have never been a 'West Side Story' or a 'Spamalot' without this.
Before Gilbert and Sullivan, there were no musical comedies at all. "Originally Joseph Papp wanted the pirates in his musical to be a motorcycle gang. It could be played on a spaceship or another planet.
This musical is as strong as it was (when it premiered) 127 years ago. "I'm twice the age I was when I performed as Frederic on Broadway. I've grown from young Frederic to the Pirate King, but no one owns this body of work.
It is passed on from performer to performer, and stays fresh and funny. I haven't returned to this work for many years, but I have always loved it. I never expected my life to be so involved in this topsy-turvy world, but I love it.
" The Musical Theatre West production will be directed by MTW's associate producer/artistic director Steven Glaudini, with choreography by Jamie Torcellini and musical direction by Daniel Thomas, also stars Norman Large as Major General Stanley, Jennifer Malenke as Mabel, Kristofer McNeeley as Frederic and Mary Gordon Murray as Ruth. Smith had only one criticism of this "Pirates." "Last night at rehearsal, there was a camaraderie amongst the cast and a looseness that was wonderful.
It is a shame we are not looking at performing this for 12 weeks with this cast, instead of just three." John Farrell is a Long Beach freelance writer Rex Smith starred on Broadway as Frederic, the young pirate apprentice, in Joseph Papp's award-winning production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance.
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