The phrase is also used in Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), where the captain, confused as to what choices to make in his life, exclaims in the opening song of Act II, "Fair moon, to thee I sing, bright regent of the heavens, say, why is everything either at sixes or at sevens?"
The Gilbert and Sullivan opera H.M.S. Pinafore, the character of Buttercup reveals that, when a baby farmer, she had switched two babies of different social classes.
In 1879 she played Buttercup in the first American production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pinafore.
Gilbert Road meets Sullivan Road there, near Savoy Place, Pinafore Court, and streets named after 30 characters from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
His first produced work was the 1967 Pikesville High Junior Play, an original parody using music from H.M.S. Pinafore and other Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
Published in 1880, it adapted the music of H.M.S. Pinafore by Arthur Sullivan to a new libretto by William H. Fuller (who was also the librettist for The Unspecific Scandal).
Hollywood Pinafore, or The Lad Who Loved a Salary is a musical comedy in two acts by George S. Kaufman, with music by Arthur Sullivan, based on Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore.
After performing in amateur productions of H.M.S. Pinafore, she was hired by Maurice Grau's French Opera Company.
The following year Markham’s company toured the West in H. M. S. Pinafore with a cast that included a young actress named Josephine Earp who later became the common-law wife of gambler and lawman Wyatt Earp.
Sir George Power, 7th Baronet (1846-1928); as a young singer, Power originated the tenor roles in H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance)
He was soon playing other baritone roles, Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore and Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance, on tour until June 1888.