Tickets now on sale
The pirates come ashore in July as Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston, the longest-running opera company in Houston, presents the popular The Pirates of Penzance at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts’ Zilkha Hall. Sung in English, this family-friendly comic opera is filled with bright and infectious melodies, colorful costumes, and amusing dialogue. Two performances are set for Saturday evenings (July 22 and July 29), while two are Sunday matinees (July 23 and July 30).
Since its launch in 1952 with The Gondoliers, Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston has presented a variety of Gilbert & Sullivan works over the years, including HMS Pinafore, Princess Ida, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard, Ruddigore, and The Pirates of Penzance, which was last performed in 2015.
The Pirates of Penzance is filled with songs you didn’t know you knew, such as “I am the very model of a modern Major-General.” The story revolves around Frederic, who was mistakenly apprenticed to a band of tender-hearted pirates. Hoping to be released from his apprenticeship on his 21st birthday, Frederic soon realizes that having his birthday on February 29 means that he will have to serve for decades to come.
Meanwhile, Frederic meets the daughters of Major-General Stanley, including Mabel, and the two young people fall instantly in love. Mabel, innocent and sweet, agrees to faithfully wait for him. However, several questions loom: Will she wait? What becomes of Fredric? Are the pirates as tender-hearted as they claim? Find out the answers at one of the four summer performances at the Hobby Center.
Audience members of a certain age may remember the 1983 motion picture The Pirates of Penzance starring Kevin Kline as the Pirate King and legendary singer Linda Ronstadt as Mabel. The movie introduced many people to Gilbert and Sullivan.
Photo credit: Steve Feinberg
NOTE: Photos are from the 2015 production of The Pirates of Penzance. Rehearsal photos for the 2023 production will be available in mid-June.
WHO: With the retirement of Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston’s beloved stage director Alistair Donkin in 2022, Nicole Kenley-Miller now assumes this key artistic position. She is known for her colorful and embodied productions of opera and musical theater, both on stage and on film and is at home on and off the stage as a director, producer, singer, and artist. Throughout her career, Kenley-Miller has worked fluidly between the opera and musical theater genres and has been at the forefront of an initiative to bring musical theater to the Schools of Music, Theatre and Dance at the University of Houston, where she directed the first two collaborative musicals. She has directed opera at UH’s Moores Opera Center for almost a decade, where her innovative productions have won top prizes from The National Opera Association, The American Prize, and multiple national and international film competitions. She was recently named assistant professor and opera stage director at the University of Oklahoma.
New to Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston is noted Houston-based conductor Eiki Isomura, who will serve as music director. He is the artistic director and principal conductor of Opera in the Heights (OH) in Houston, where he has led more than 100 performances of over 25 operas, drawing consistent praise for elevating the company’s performance standard.
Isomura has guest conducted at Opera Philadelphia, Opera Santa Barbara, MUSIQA, and Temple University. His upcoming engagements include Opera Orlando, Harrower Workshop at Georgia State University, and Houston Grand Opera Community and Learning.
Rounding out the creative team is bass baritone Joseph Rawley as artistic director/chorus master, who enjoys an active musical career, including opera performances, recitals, and choral works. He has appeared with Opera in the Heights, Seattle Opera, Portland (OR) Opera and also performs locally with various churches and other artistic outlets as a chorus member and soloist. He is the Christian Education Director and Children’s Choir Director at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Houston.
Cast members:
Major-General Stanley: Dennis Arrowsmith
The Pirate King: Sean Holshouser
Frederic: Brian Yeakley
Ruth: Jana Ellsworth
Samuel: Roberto Reyna
Sergeant of Police: Johnny Salvesen
Mabel: Julie Hoeltzel
Edith: Callie Denbigh
Kate: Giselle Bautista
Isabel: Laura Smolik
Women’s Chorus: Valeria Bautista, Sarah Hernandez, Rose Kearin, Rufina Robbins*, Angie Tovar, Emma Hayden*, Chloe Owens*, Laura Smolik, Rebecca Tann, Lauren Turner*
Men’s Chorus: Cody Arthur*, Mick Bayer, Zaccai Campos, Geoff Copper, Joe Key, Asa Ambrose*, Jadon Campos, Evan Clawson*, Joe Carl White*, Talbert Williams
* Indicates understudy
WHEN: Saturday, July 22 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, July 23 at 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 29 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, July 30 at 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: Zilkha Hall at Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby St., Houston, TX 77002
TICKETS: Tickets for The Pirates of Penzance are now on sale and range from $39 to $84, plus handling fees. The website is https://gilbertandsullivan.org/tickets. Be sure and purchase early for the best tickets.
MORE: Since The Pirates of Penzance is suitable for the entire family, parents are encouraged to bring children to introduce them to the art form of the operetta. Gilbert & Sullivan operas and operettas were the forerunners of modern musical theater, with songs and choruses mostly light and comic in nature, imbued with wit and a sense of irony. These operas have also influenced political discourse, literature, film, and television and have been widely parodied and imitated by humorists