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Pirates of Penzance - The Story
Our story begins as Frederic, a young man with an unswerving sense of duty, is about to reach his 21st birthday and conclude his long apprenticeship to the infamous Pirates of Penzance. His good-hearted but hard-of-hearing nursemaid Ruth reveals that she has made a most disastrous mistake. When Frederic was just a boy she misunderstood her employer's directive and apprenticed him to a pirate instead of a pilot, as intended. Frederic tells the Pirate King (a dashing figure who never preys on orphans since he himself has had the misfortune to be one) that his freedom will be devoted to exterminating all pirates and that it would be better for the pirates to leave before midnight when his indentures are over. The pirates depart immediately and Frederic is left alone with Ruth, the only woman he has seen in years. Ruth pleads with Frederic to take her with him, but her case is lost when a bevy of very young, attractive women appear.

Frederic appeals to the girls to overlook his pirate apparel and his past profession, but no one will listen until the beauteous Mabel appears. Frederic and Mabel fall in love instantly. The pirates return and Mabel warns them that their actions will not go unpunished since her father, the guardian of all of these young ladies, holds the exalted rank of Major-General. The Major-General is forced to pretend that he is also an orphan in order to win their sympathy. Although he fools the Pirate King, the Major-General cannot rest easy with his troubled conscience.

Meanwhile, Frederic is launching an attack on the pirates with the cowardly assistance of the police. But Ruth and the Pirate King interrupt him with a most ingenious paradox - Frederic was born in leap year on the 29th of February and, in terms of actual birthdays, is only 5 instead of 21. Frederic, slave of duty that he is, rejoins his former associates, and the police are left to attack the pirates on their own.

The Pirates seize the Major-General and the police are quickly defeated. But the Sergeant of Police charges them to yield 'in Queen Victoria's name' and the pirates cannot resist this overpowering appeal.

Ruth then reveals that the pirates are actually 'noblemen who have gone wrong'. Mabel and Frederic are happily united forever with the unqualified blessings of the Major-General.

Director & Choreographer: Eric Pover
Musical Director: David Greatbanks

The Cast
Jane Johnson - Mabel
Mike Bradley - Fredrick
Sue Dodd - Ruth
Steve Turnbull - Pirate King
Kevin Whitfield - Samuel
Graham Wilkes - Major General
Simon Dean - Police Sergeant
Charlotte Platt - Major Generals Daughter
Izzy Pearce Higham - Major Generals Daughter
Barbara Thompson -Major Generals Daughter
Linda Race - Major Generals Daughter
Bethany Froud - Major Generals Daughter

Review taken from NODA Magazine

The North West premier staging of the Australian version of Pirate was given a rousing reception at Crewe's Lyceum Theatre.

I do not recall an audience, many of whom came in appropriate fancy dress, being so enthusiastically taken up with a performance as they were on the final night of this spectacular production when the fifth call for an encore of 'Cat Like Tread' caused the MD to wave a white flag. An enviable cast list totalling 45, of whom 21 were male, speaks volumes for the interest generated by this version of an old favourite.

The opening scene - behind a gauze - in which well known characters from other G & S operas were chased or carried off by pirates set the tongue-in-cheek tone from the outset.
As the Pirate King, Steve Turnbull was superb: dare one mention Johnny Depp in the same breath. His antics were hilarious. Missing the boat and landing in the water, and mistiming the intended beheading of Major-General Stanley finishing up with his own head in a bucket, were but two of them.
The lovely Jane Johnson brought her fine voice, and a hint of mischievousness, to the role of his daughter, Mabel, partnered magnificently by Mike Bradley as Frederic.

In recent months I have seen him in three different roles all performed to critical acclaim.The part of Ruth was a gift to Sue Dodd. Every nuance of the character was there with a raucous delivery that would have stripped the paint of a door at twenty paces.
None the less strident was Kevin Whitfield enjoying his role as the Pirate King's side-kick, Samuel, not a bit lie his previous role as Trevor Gaydon in Thoroughly Modern Millie which earned his a NODA NW nomination.

As the Sergeant of Police, Simon Dean performed to great effect with an athletic routine that must have been so taxing and so different from the usual portrayal of this character, which Graham Wilks was every inch the Modern Major-General Stanley.
In this version the Major-General has but five daughters, the Fabulettes, and what a fabulous quintet Bethany Froud, Charlotte Platt, Linda Race, Barbara Tomlinson and Yzzy Pearce-Higham proved to be, combining fun and laughter with delightful singing and dancing.

The chorus routines were impeccable with a finale to rival that of Mama Mia!

Every aspect of the production - music, costumes, lighting, sound, props and staging - combined in a production that will live in the memory for a long time to come.