Movielogr
The Pirates of Penzance (1985)
Directed by Norman Campbell, Brian Macdonald
Overview
Brent Carver stars as the swashbuckling Pirate King in the famous Stratford Festival’s rollicking production of the Gilbert & Sullivan classic that pits British bobbles against unlikely pirates on the Cornish coast. Sullivan regarded this operetta - a hit ever since its first production in New York in 1879 - as the best comedy he composed. He even said of his collaborator, “The libretto is ingenious, clever, wonderfully fun in parts and sometimes brilliant in dialogue - beautifully written for music, as is all Gilbert does.” Indeed, audiences will find the music every bit a match for the lyrics, with the genius of the score lying in its parody of grand opera. Filmed in 1985 at the world-famous Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario.
Length 124 minutes
Actors
Jeff Hyslop | Brent Carver | Caralyn Tomlin | Douglas Chamberlain | Pat Galloway | Jim White | Stephen Beamish | Karen Skidmore | Karen Wood | Alison Grant | Wendy Abbott