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Resurrecting Gilbert & Sullivan rarities is a worthy custom with the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players (NYGASP). Back in 2010, for example, they staged a single performance of Utopia, Limited, certainly one of the pair’s less-often-seen comic operas. They’re returning to that show for a fuller production this spring. But it’s always a blast to see the company’s boisterous productions of the old classics. And right now NYGASP is staging their latest rollicking rendition of the beloved H.M.S. Pinafore, as clever and funny and silly and as full of memorable music as ever.
H.M.S. Pinafore, or The Lass That Loved a Sailor has a wafer-thin plot revolving around the class divisions that defined so much of British (and American) society in the Victorian era. Common sailor Ralph Rackstraw (tenor Cameron Smith, sailing the seas of a big vocal range with ease) and Captain Corcoran’s (David Auxier) elegant daughter Josephine (soprano Michelle Seipel) can’t nurse any real hopes for their love for one another, as her social status is too great a step above his.
Still higher on the ladder staggers Sir Joseph Porter (James Mills), First Lord of the Admiralty, to whom the Captain has pledged Josephine’s hand. The show portrays Sir Joseph as a foppish figure of fun, and Mills plays this up for maximum risibility. It’s worth pausing to note, though, that the character also exemplifies Gilbert & Sullivan’s penchant for using their creations to skewer the societal and political hypocrisies of their time. Sir Joseph acquired command of the Queen’s Navy not through any merit or experience but, as he happily admits, through an extreme case of failing upward and being in the right place at the right time. It’s hard not to see a parallel with the empty talking head at the helm of today’s most powerful military.
But the sheer fun of Pinafore overwhelms any seriousness. That includes an inserted scene – NYGASP is well known for these – that has the Admiral and the Captain in an imagined phone conversation between Britain and the “colonies.” It’s a swirl of contextual drollery worthy of a Mel Brooks-Carl Reiner routine. (“I’m in New York.” “There’s a new one?”)
That kind of material works so well partly because the cast’s many company veterans play off of one another with frankness and ease. They include the always-delightful Angela Christine Smith as Buttercup, the “bumboat woman” who reveals a fateful and ridiculous secret leading to a happy ending for all; Matthew Wages as Dick Deadeye, the sailor who almost causes a true disaster out of spite; and Auxier, who is also responsible for the colorful, carbonated choreography.
Amid all the hijinks, the production’s high points also include its tender moments, like Seipel’s touching rendition of the lovely “Sorry Her Lot” and Buttercup and the Captain’s “Things Are Seldom What They Seem.”
Next up, the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players will dip back into the rarities for a fuller production of Utopia, Limited than their last. For now, you can’t go wrong with H.M.S. Pinafore, now at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College through January 18, 2026. Visit the website for tickets and information on their current season.
