One of Gilbert and Sullivan’s finest, The Pirates of Penzance is fun for the entire family with a hilarious story involving sentimental pirates, blundering policemen, absurd adventures, and improbable paradoxes. Young Frederic was apprenticed to a band of tenderhearted, orphaned pirates by his nurse who, being hard of hearing, had mistaken her master’s instructions to apprentice the boy to a pilot. Frederic, upon completing his 21st year, rejoices that he has fulfilled his indentures and is now free to return to respectable society. The Pirate King is quick to inform Frederic that because he was born in a leap year on February 29, he is not quite yet 21. Thus, he must remain apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st birthday. By the end of the opera, the pirates, a Major General who knows nothing of military strategy, the General’s large family of beautiful daughters, and the timid constabulary all contribute to a cacophony that can be silenced only by Queen Victoria’s name.

This outstanding musical is a must-see for the entire family.