W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, notable for their operettas, faced financial challenges with H.M.S. Pinafore in the U.S. due to lack of copyright protection. Their subsequent work, The Pirates of Penzance, was strategically premiered in New York to safeguard their interests. Over the years, Pirates has shown incredible resilience on Broadway. The latest adaptation, retitled Pirates! The Penzance Musical, attempts to modernize the story by relocating it to post-Reconstruction New Orleans. However, it struggles to capture the original's brilliance, maintaining a frantic energy rather than the cool wit expected from Gilbert and Sullivan's classic.
The latest Broadway incarnation, "Pirates! The Penzance Musical," is significantly altered in tone, lacking the cool wit of the original material, making it clumsy.
Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas, particularly Pirates of Penzance, illustrate their savvy business acumen in a time when they lacked U.S. copyright protection.
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