Last weekend, MV Theatre presented its production of “Pirates of Penzance,” sailing into new waters with its first-ever operetta. Directed by Jay Fontanetta and Nathan Bramstedt, the spring musical received a positive reaction.

“Pirates of Penzance”, an operetta written by Gilbert and Sullivan in 1879, is a tale of Frederic, a junior pirate, who reaches his 21st year meaning he is no longer bound to his apprenticeship to the pirates. When he resigns, he meets a beautiful girl named Mabel, and their comedic love story plays out in less than two hours.

“Gilbert and Sullivan found an opportunity to take the idea of the opera and make it accessible to the middle classes,” Fontanetta said. “Their operettas were in English, they were shorter, they were comedies and they dialed down the production value to make it more affordable. They took the idea of an opera and flipped it upside down.”

The show began with a prologue played by the pit orchestra directed by Don Devaney, which gave viewers an idea of the show from the very beginning. While the audience enjoys the wonderful musicians, they start to notice that they are in an opera house. As the curtain rises, they see cardboard waves splashing back and forth with the tentacles of underwater creatures surfacing. These impressive theatrics were handled by the tech crew.

This show was different from every other show Metea has ever put on solely for the fact that it’s predominantly vocally based. “It was a success,” senior Christina Fitsalos, “Mabel”, said. “Everyone who was in it seemed to have appreciated to be a part of Metea history by doing something so different.”

Many people were skeptical on the show and how it would turn out with 14 – 18 year olds performing these matured roles but that, in fact, was the most extraordinary part of the show. These are all high school students that go through the same eight periods every day. Yet, once they are let out at 2:25 p.m., they are completely different people, in a completely different time, communicating in a completely different way.

In the end, staff and students alike enjoyed the production. “I loved the humor throughout the show,” junior Isabel Lohman said. “I think the whole cast’s chemistry was great. Everyone genuinely looked like they were having a good time. They didn’t just sound good, they looked good too.”

The ensemble and leads had an equal role in the show, something that is very rarely seen in many musicals. You are drawn to everyone in the cast and no matter who you look at, you will understand the story to its true intent.

“I felt like I was watching a broadway musical,” senior Breanne Dunfee said. “I really enjoyed watching it and I felt like I had to pay 30 dollars instead of just 10 dollars to go see it, because it was such an amazing musical.”

This was one of the first of many parodies at its time and the cast members brought something to the stage that I have never seen before.

By Sushmitha Suresh

Photo by Jack Heerhold