Photo by Mark Frohna
Students in rehearsal for Milwaukee Opera Theatre's H.M.S. Pinafore
Students in rehearsal for Milwaukee Opera Theatre's H.M.S. Pinafore
Arthur Sullivan was the author of several capable cantatas and symphonies and was best known for penning a popular hymn, “Onward Christian Soldiers”—until he met a witty if cynical solicitor called William S. Gilbert. Suddenly, Sullivan discovered a sense of humor and the power of parody. Gilbert and Sullivan became the enduring hitmakers, the Lennon and McCartney of the Victorian era. Their first smash, H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), will be performed next month in a collaboration between Milwaukee Opera Theatre (MOT) and the UWM Theatre Department.
MOT’s artistic director Jill Anna Ponasik will codirect H.M.S. Pinafore with UWM theater instructor Jeffrey Mosser and Donna Kummer as music director. She is no stranger to the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire. In past seasons, MOT has produced Iolanthe, Ruddigore with Skylight Opera Theatre and The Mikado. H.M.S. Pinafore remains the most familiar of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas with snippets finding their way into “Star Trek” and “The Simpsons.”
The cast of 17 characters, with a four-piece band, are all UWM students. Some of the actors will join in on other instruments, band members will sing—and on one number, the audience is expected to participate by singing. It’s the sort of boundary crossing familiar to MOT audiences from several previous productions and provides many creative opportunities for the student cast. UWM students have also created many of the stage props and costumes. “It will look nautical and occasionally Victorian and there will be bustles,” Ponasik says
The MOT-UWM coproduction will feature the operetta in its entirety but with modifications, many suggested by the students. “The production was cast before the adaptation was begun. The final version was inspired to a degree by the cast,” Ponasik explains. “Some of the language was contoured around the actors for their personalities and special skills.” The cast was handed script and score on day one of rehearsals “but there was room for the cast to do some editing. We’re making this production together,” she continues. “We’re letting them make it their 2025 H.M.S. Pinafore.”
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Ponasik disputes the claim by some classical snobs that Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas are superficial. “Their work speaks to me because every piece grapples with the absurdity, the surreal absurdity, of the predicaments we create as a society—the unintended consequences of the laws we pass. The societal norms of today may be different from Victorian England but many are no less irrational.”
H.M.S. Pinafore will be produced October 8-12 at the UWM Mainstage Theater. For tickets and more information, visit milwaukeeoperatheatre.org/hms-pinafore.
