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Cast List

When two names are listed for a part, the starred actor will play the Saturday matinee, the other will play the Saturday evening and Sunday matinee performances.

Music Director:  John Dreslin
Artistic Director:  Michael Loomis

Review of our 2016 Pirates

     For a review of our production of The Pirates of Penzance by a member of the New England Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Click Here and scroll down two pages to see the heading “Recent Productions”.

Pirates on YouTube!

     You can find two video clips of this production by going to youtube.com and searching for “Connecticut Gilbert Pirates”.

Our 2016 Season

      2016 was a busy and exciting year for our group. We welcomed back to our stage some very talented people who had not performed with us for several years, and welcomed 12 new people to our cast, including 6 high school students. Five of our newcomers appeared in principal roles in this year’s show. In August, we performed a showcase concert at the Garden on the Bridge in Willimantic, and in September showcase concerts at StoneRidge in Mystic, and the LaGrua Center in Stonington. All of them were well attended and very well received.

      We last performed The Pirates of Penzance in 2009 and chose to bring it back to the stage for this year’s show. Being a leap year, many other G&S groups around the country had also chosen to stage Pirates this year. We proceeded undeterred, determined to make our show something special; a production that stood out from all the rest. In the end, the special touches that we added, the planning and prep work of our crew, and the dedication and hard work by our cast members made this show a rousing success.

Would you let this man officiate your wedding?

      Michael Loomis took the helm as this year’s Artistic Director. He and John Dreslin, our Music Director, came up with some very creative and fun touches for our Pirates, while still managing to stay reasonably true to Gilbert’s original libretto. Mike made a cameo appearance as Dr. Daley, (a doctor of divinity) strolling through the Act I and Act II finales looking up from his prayer book and turning to the cast and the audience with a rather puzzled expression on his face as he realized that he was perhaps in the wrong show.

     Among the new material was the reintroduction of lyrics to the Act II finale that had been included in the 1879 premier of Pirates in New York City and dropped in subsequent performances. Since the story line was about doing one’s duty, Mike and John also included the song “Duty, duty (You understand) from Ruddigore in our production as a trio for Ruth, Frederick and the Pirate King.  We included a slide show of famous pirate flags during the overture and added an elevated rocky promontory to our set from which Mabel and Major General Stanley could make their grand entrances and exits. We included ground fog in the church ruins in the opening of Act II and worked in humorous exchanges and banter between the cast and the orchestra (who themselves were dressed as pirates) in various scenes.

      There was additional music and strobe light “old time movie” effects in the fight scene between the pirates and bobbies, and the tinkle of shattering glass as Mabel hit her final high Eb. Mabel, as always, was portrayed as a ham and a show off. But we also worked in distinct and different personalities for Edith (as a jealous, underappreciated sister and daughter) and Kate (as flirtatious and a bit man crazy). Our bobbies, sang ta-ran-ta-ra as they smartly marched in a pinwheel formation around our Sergeant of Police, and clacked truncheons in time to the music in the final bars of “When a felon’s not engaged.” All made for a rollicking good time for our cast, our crew, and our orchestra, and for all those who came out to see our show. We hope you were among them.                   (J.F.)

Our Piratical Orchestra

Digital images courtesy of Ala Krivov (http://ala.krivov.com)

     Our talented performers for The Pirates of Penzance are featured in the Pirates-2016 link in the sidebar on this page, but here we wish to honor our splendid orchestra. Most of them have been with us for many years and their talents and professionalism have made an enormous contribution to our artistic success. We are very grateful for their efforts. As you can see, they all enthusiastically joined into the swashbuckling theme of the show, even interacting with the stage performers upon occasion! The next time you see a CG&SS show, you might remain a minute after the final curtain and tell them how much you appreciate their efforts.