Pirates of Penzanze

Just saw a commercial for beaches.com that used "I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General" from Pirates of Penzance with re-worked lyrics of course. Made me smile.

Then I checked it out of IBDB and saw there have been TWENTY-SIX credited b'way productions!!!! The last production closed in 82 (Kevin Kline, Linda Ronstadt, Estelle Parsons [didn't realize that!] and Rex Smith)

Hey, b'way -- it's TIME!!!!

Does anyone know if there is any other show with as many or more revivals???

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I was gonna wait and post this in my monthly dvd/bd thread, but I'll post it here now.

Release date 9/14/10

Remastered and newly restored sound. This is the Broadway version for which Kline won the Tony. With Linda Ronstandt and Angela Lansbury.

Also, just out last month is the Anthony Warlow version on BD

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Parsons played the role on Broadway, replacing Patricia Routledge, who had played it at the Delacorte (where the production started). Routledge elected not to come with it to Broadway.

The film version really is a movie (if a purposely stagey one). Lansbury did the role in the film, though otherwise it's all the original Broadway principals.

Btw, the production was also shot live at the Delacorte, with Routledge (and Kline, Rose, Ronstadt, and Smith), and it's commercially available:

http://www.amazon.com/Gilbert-Sullivan-Penzance-Routledge-Delacorte/dp/B00006RCMW/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1282171513&sr=1-2

One interesting thing about the movie version is that, while Alex Korey and Stephen Hannan, aren't in the movie, the actors who are playing the parts that they played on Broadway are lip-synching to their voices.

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BD = Blu-ray Disc, jo.

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The Chicago Tribune reviewer said Belushi played the Pirate King like a Chicago politician!