DVD Reviews

The Pirates of Penzance – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Sep 20, 2010, 16:38 GMT

The Pirates of Penzance Gilbert and Sullivan\'s classic musical comedy of mistaken identity comes swashbuckling to the screen with all the laughs songs and stars that made it a long-running Broadway smash! Kevin Kline reprises his Tony Award winning role along with Angela Lansbury Linda Ronstadt George Rose and Rex Smith in the story of a roguish pirate king and his adventurous young charge who explore the coastline in search ...more

I am the very model of a modern Major-General or at least that’s what I sing when prancing around the M&C offices.  This Gilbert and Sullivan production had all the hallmarks of making a hit, but events conspired against it. 

Frederic (Rex Smith) was apprenticed in his youth to the Pirate King (Kevin Kline) until his 21st birthday.  This was all a case of mistaken apprenticeship since his father actually said “pilot” as the preferred occupation and his hard-of-hearing nanny Ruth (Angela Landsbury) heard “pirate.” 

Nevertheless, the nanny set out to sea with her charge.  The birthday that signifies Frederic’s freedom from apprenticeship has arrived, but he has troubling news for the Pirate King.  He’s going to dedicate the remainder of his life to eradicating piracy.  So Frederic and Ruth set off for land. 

On the beach, Frederic encounters Mabel (Linda Rondstadt) and its love at first sight.  She’s one of the daughters of a very modern Major-General (George Rose).  The pirates arrive and threaten the Major-General, but he outsmarts them and tasks Frederic to lead the Sergeant (Tony Azito) and the police force to eradicate the pirate scourge. 

Unfortunately, a circumstance of Frederic’s birth still ties him to the pirates and he has to turn sides.  Will Frederic and Mabel’s love last?  Will a performance of HMS Pinafore get interrupted?  Tune in to this fun, breezy musical and see. 

In 1980, Joseph Papp produced a successful Broadway run of the classic Gilbert and Sullivan opera the Pirates of Penzance.  The standout in the cast would be a relative unknown named Kevin Kline.  In 1983, Universal Pictures mounted a filmed version of that hit Broadway production. 

The main cast reprises their roles (Kline, Smith, Rondstadt, Azito) with only one replacement.  The divine Angela Landsbury would take the role played on the stage by Estelle Parsons.  This would be our first glance at Kevin Kline who would rocket skywards in the same year with the Big Chill. 

He’s wonderful in the movie in full Errol Flynn mode (no wonder he would play Douglas Fairbanks in the Chaplin movie).  I wonder if he thought that stardom would escape him since this film was a notorious flop. 

Not that it’s a bad film, but some distribution issues caused the film to get boycotted.  Universal was trying something new and released it simultaneously in theaters as well as a pay cable channel in Los Angeles.  This peeved theaters owners so they boycotted the film. 

It would have some success in the theaters that actually played it, but that wasn’t many.  Truth be told, the film is basically a filmed play.  The sets may be a bit more elaborate and dimensional than on the Broadway stage, but watching the movie will save you the trip and ticket prices.  I believe this also marks the first time that the film has been shown in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. 

Its been released in fullscreen on laserdisc and VHS, but I know that it has never been on DVD before.  It’s certainly a delight for G&S fans or Broadway lovers, even my kids seemed enchanted by it. 

The Pirates of Penzance is presented in widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The only special feature is a 78 second trailer that is in black and white and pretty poor shape. 

Bad blood kept it from being a success in 1983, but this filmed version of the Broadway hit hits all the right notes.  Even better that it’s available for the first time on DVD and in its original aspect ratio. 

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