The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players – H.M.S. Pinafore

The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players’ winter ‘mini season’   opened with a thoroughly charming performance of H.M.S. Pinafore, the fourth of the duo’s fourteen collaborations and their first breakthrough hit. This is the first Pinafore staged under Artistic Director James Mills, who took over this season from founder Albert Bergeret. Since his first appearance with NYGASP 10 years ago as a sailor in the Pinafore ensemble, Mills has transitioned from chorus member to leading ‘patterman’ and has stage-managed and directed several of the company’s productions.

Subtitled ‘The Lass that Loved a Sailor’,the effervescent operetta – an exuberant creation that lampoons Victorian-era class distinctions, politics and pomposity – features a story that involves a captain’s daughter, a lowly seaman, and a pair of mistaken identities that only Little Buttercup, a bumbling peddler lady, can unravel. All the action takes place in late-19^th-century England, aboard the Royal Navy’s H.M.S. Pinafore, at anchor off Portsmouth. Albére’s multi-level, single set design – a realistic representation of the quarter-deck of a naval vessel against an attractively painted backdrop of the sky, the ocean, and another ship at port in the harbor – is dramatically heightened by Benjamin Weill’s lighting. Gail Wofford’s brightly hued period costumes complete the stage picture.

The show mounts a winning cast, grounded by baritone David Auxier’s energetic and authoritative depiction of Captain Corcoran, Commander of the Pinafore. As his conflicted daughter, Josephine, soprano Michelle Seipel displayed vocal agility and dramatic style, aptly handling both the comic and romantic elements of the role, while tenor Cameron Smith depicted her beloved, the able seaman Ralph Rackstraw, with authentic ardor and conviction. With her rich mezzo and comical assurance, Angela Christine Smith nearly stole the show as the ‘plump and pleasing’ Little Buttercup, but the true showstopper was (director) James Mills as the pretentious Sir Joseph Porter, First Lord of the Admiralty, the primary rival for the hand of Josephine. Decked out in a messy white wig and silk stockings and satin knee-breeches that emphasized his rickety legs, he brought down the house in his monologue, ‘I Am the Monarch of the Sea’, in which he declares himself ‘the ruler of the Queen’s Navee’ despite never having been at sea.

The smaller roles were all well-managed, with a particularly noteworthy contribution from Victoria Devany as the pesky leader of Sir Joseph’s retinue of ‘his sisters, and his cousins, and his aunts’. Bass baritone David Wannen as Bill Bobstay and bass Quinto Ott as Bob Becket were especially impressive in their a cappella trio, ‘A British Tar’, with Cameron Smith.

Mills has enhanced the original libretto with some high-spirited contemporary references, seamlessly woven into Gilbert’s text.An inserted scene – a delightful, seemingly improvised, ‘phone’ conversation between Sir Joseph and Corcoran – including gags about New York City parking problems and Operation Mincemeat (currently running on Broadway) – proved particularly memorable.

The orchestra, led by Joseph Rubin, provided lively, well-balanced support for the singers throughout this wonderfully sung and played Pinafore, Gilbert’s inventive writing and Sullivan’s shining score brilliantly realized.