After the first draft of this review I had to grab my thesaurus because I noticed I’d used the word “spectacular” six times.
How fun that a 127-year old comic operetta is the ship that sails the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center’s theater company into the big time of today. And it does so with a (yes) spectacular flourish straight out of Gilbert & Sullivan’s rollicking “Pirates of Penzance.”
The mingling of past and present serves this rocketing company well. It’s completing its first season after a $1.5 million modernization of a 70-year-old theater that provides great comfort for 400 while staying true to the 1936 décor.
“Pirates” is an unrelenting pleasure from the start – when two buccaneers shoo director Sandra Womochil Bray from the stage during her welcoming speech, steal some purses (and charm a few socks) off a willing audience, and even engage conductor Jay Hahn in a sword fight – from his orchestra pit.
That kind of lighthearted comic assuredness rules the day. Before you even have time to process the awesome pirate-
ship set, the power of a 10-piece orchestra, the colorful costumes and clever choreography … before you can contemplate where in the world this bevy of 26 gorgeous voices might have come from … onto the stage flits one Amy Sue Hardy.
We know where Hardy comes from: She’s a surging pop star who not only cracked has Billboard’s Top 40 but also sings with the opera angels. When she opens her mouth for “Poor Wandering One,” she boosts an already excellent show to another level.
She’s joined in this silly romp about a band of thieves with a soft spot for orphans by Matt Newton as a great Pirate King, Brantley Haines as the dopey romantic hero who at age 21 has laid eyes on only one woman, and Sharon Gibson as the graying servant who would like her naive young stud to believe she’s about as good as it gets in the female department. Enter Hardy as Mabel, with her five intoxicating sisters.
The Major General (Preston Arnold) lacks some panache and vocal dexterity on the singular tune (“Modern Major General”) – but given the overall accomplishment, that seems a quibble.
FAC productions aren’t often reviewed; the familiarity of titles precludes the need for greater critical assessment. But with this production, a company that recently seemed strictly midrange is suddenly operating at a level not often seen outside touring productions.
It’s … spectacular.
“Pirates of Penzance” | **** RATING
OPERETTA|Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale Ave.|Directed by Sandra Womochil Bray|Starring Amy Sue Hardy, Matt Newton and Brantley Haines|THROUGH JUNE 24|8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays|2 hours, 15 minutes| $24-$29|719-634-5583 or csfineartscenter.org.
