STC shakes its booty

The only thing serious about Sacramento Theatre Company’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance is director Michael Laun’s intention to do it right. Pirates is funny—laugh-out-loud, goofy funny—and Laun gets it.

So, too, does the cast. The actors appear as close as family, enjoying what they’re doing together as much as the audience enjoys seeing it. The comedy is broad, but it’s also clever (thank wordsmith W. S. Gilbert for that) and it’s supported by just-right sprightly melodies courtesy of composer Arthur Sullivan.

For those who don’t know the story—and there might be some—it’s this: Frederic (strong, pure tenor Zak Edwards) has reached his 21st year and is released from his long naval apprenticeship. His guardian Ruth (Martha Omiyo Kight, who excelled despite microphone issues opening night) misheard ship’s “pi-lot” as “pi-rot” and hooked him up with a band of soft-hearted (and soft-headed) pirates led by the Pirate King (the dashing Michael RJ Campbell). Intent upon living an honorable life, Frederic vows to bring his former felonious friends to justice. When the daughters of Major-General Stanley (Gary S. Martinez) come into view, Frederic falls instantly in love with Mabel (lovely soprano Aviva Pressman). Then, through “a most ingenious paradox,” Frederic learns he is still bound to the pirates—and that they want to take the General’s other daughters (Miranda D. Lawson, Katherine Cooper, Abbey Williams-Campbell and Courtney Shannon, who so totally inhabits her role that she is comically mesmerizing) as wives.

Songs ensue: “Poor Wandering One,” “I am the Very Model of A Modern Major-General” (an Elizabethan rap of sorts), “A Paradox” and “A Policeman’s Lot Is Not a Happy One” among them. And then, wouldn’t you know it, things get worked out.

The choreography by Ryan Blanning, who also plays the Lieutenant; the band, led by Samuel Clein; and the Elizabethan set (with the Queen herself looking down upon the stage), designed by Jarrod Bodensteiner, Renee Degarmo and Brian Watson, complete the perfectly pleasing picture.