Thirty Day Musical Theatre Challenge #1

A Song from the First Musical I Saw

I am a Pirate King - Pirates of Penzance


I believe this was the first musical I saw live. It was at least the first musical I can remember seeing live. I do believe I heard and was familiar with the Phantom of the Opera before this but as it has had quite an influence on me I'm sure it'll come up another time in my 30 day challenge.

I really love this production of 'Pirates'. The cast is amazingly talented and they bring an incredible energy to the show. I particularly like Jon English as the Pirate King and his interaction with the conductor. As well as that there is a scene where Toni Lamont (Ruth) gets the giggles from something that Jon English has said and once she gets control again they have to repeat the line and start again. Through it all Simon Gallagher (Fredrick) keeps his cool and does not break. It may not be professional to 'break' or add little unscripted jokes or tricks to a performance but I love it when it happens. I really enjoy seeing the actor behind the character in moments like these.

This version is the same version that my parents took my and brother and I to see when we were young. It was filmed and played on the TV a little later and mum taped it for us. Brother and I used to watch it again and again until mum was sick of it. He liked the pirates and the fighting, I liked the singing and dancing. We both agreed not to listen to the slower and 'boring' songs in the middle of the first act and fast forwarded through those bits. :-)

After awhile we moved on and stopped watching the video for years. It go so that the video got taped over or thrown out. Last year for some reason I wanted to watch it again and bought myself the DVD. Since then I've put it on when I'm feeling a bit 'blah' and the music and the action always manage to give me a lift.