HMS PINAFORE IN CONCERT HMS Pinafore is CCPA’s first venture into the concert staging style of presenting musical theatre: the entire production is NOT presented.  Instead, the musicians are given full sway. The orchestra goes not into the pit but center stage behind all the characters who march out full blown before an audience hopefully already familiar with the mirth and silliness that is about to occur. 

HSM Pinafore celebrates the grandfathers of the English
Musical theatrical stage-- W. S. Gilbert (story and staging, the librettist) and Arthur Sullivan (the composer and songster) who mounted Pinafore in May of 1878, as the fourth production in what was to become a historic
and precedent setting collaboration.  Other titles to follow: The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado (among many others).  Gilbert and Sullivan were exemplars for American’s own master team--Rodgers and Hammerstein--who gave us Sound of Music, Carousel, Oklahoma, South Pacific, etc. etc. etc.  

CCPA’s artistic staff has engaged the winning chemistry from last seasons GYPSY—Alison England Sam (Mama Rose) and Robert Brandzell (musical conductor) to bring the Pinafore concert to the stage.  They have prevailed upon their considerable contacts in musical theatre to bring together  veteran instrumentalists and vocalists who rise to the demands of Gilbert and Sullivan’s challenging material.

Prepare for a lot of toe tapping tempos, roller coaster melodies, and grand posturing in the name of love, honor, and (now and then) even a little saucy naughtiness.  Prepare to enjoy the barbs thrown at patriotism, party politics,, bureaucratic incompetence, and the rigors of social class. Pull up to the CCPA stage and get to know once again Josephine, Sir Joseph, the Captain, Buttercup, Ralph Rackstraw, and Dick Deadeye.