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9 unusual facts about The Pirates of Penzance


Allan Lokos

Earlier in this life Lokos was a professional singer appearing first with the American Savoyards and then in the original Broadway productions of Oliver! and Pickwick, as well as the Stratford Festival/ Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance.

Derek Pattinson

A less formal honour marking his retirement was the singing, in the General Synod, of a variation on the Major-General's Song from The Pirates of Penzance with the line, "He was the very model of a Secretary-General".

Kim Poirier

She got a part in the musical The Pirates of Penzance but she had to drop out after getting too busy.

Lara Teeter

His regional directing credits include My Fair Lady (Opera Pacific), The Pirates of Penzance (San Bernardino Civic Light Opera and Light Opera Works of Chicago), Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Hollywood Cinegrill), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Fullerton Civic Light Opera), Ragtime (Light Opera Works of Chicago), and Candide (Light Opera Works of Chicago).

Leap year

In Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance, Frederic the pirate apprentice discovers that he is bound to serve the pirates until his 21st birthday rather than until his 21st year.

Power baronets

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)

The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World

Referring to Creasy's work in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance, Major-General Stanley boasts that he is able to "quote the fights historical; from Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical."

Toni Lamond

On her return to Australia in the mid 1990s she performed in shows including 42nd Street, The Pirates of Penzance and My Fair Lady.

Walter H. Fisher

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.


Doctor Who and the Pirates

These include: "I am the very model of a Gallifreyan buccaneer" based on the "Major General's Song", "An assassin's lot is not a happy one" on the "Policeman's Chorus", both from The Pirates of Penzance, and "I'm Jasper's man" on "I am so proud" from The Mikado.

Forbidden Broadway, Vol. 1

The album, recorded June 28, 1984 at Time Capsules Studios in New York, spoofs Broadway's latest hits, including Amadeus, Evita, The Pirates of Penzance, and Annie and attacking stars like Carol Channing, Angela Lansbury, Ethel Merman, and Jerry Herman.

Tony Azito

Azito's best-known role, however, came in yet a third production for NYSF: as the Sergeant of Police in the 1980 Broadway revival of The Pirates of Penzance, starring Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline.


see also

Virginia MacWatters

MacWatters sang at the New York City Opera from 1946 to 1951, in The Pirates of Penzance (as Mabel, conducted by Julius Rudel), Rigoletto (as Gilda, with Giuseppe Valdengo and Luigi Infantino), Il barbiere di Siviglia (as Rosina, opposite Enzo Mascherini), The Old Maid and the Thief (as Laetitia, with Marie Powers), Le nozze di Figaro (as Susanna), Les contes d'Hoffmann (as Olympia), and Ariadne auf Naxos (as Zerbinetta).