Happy 38th Birthday, Frederic!
Last Friday some good friends of ours hosted a "Pirates of Penzance Leap Year Party." We watched the 1983 movie version of the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta starring Kevin Kline, Rex Smith, Linda Rondstadt, and Angela Lansbury. We've seen the movie before, but this was the most fun we've ever had with it, watching with a group of families, themed foods (Pirate Sherry, H.M.S. Pineapple, etc.), and kids in pirate costumes. Thanks to the Internet, we had librettos onhand, very helpful when following Gilbert & Sullivan's signature warp-speed lyrical trains. The math teacher in our group was particularly impressed with this verse:
Come to think of it, a dictionary might have been handy too.
If you're unfamiliar with the story of The Pirates of Penzance and its connection with leap year, here's a teaser: The story is about a young man named Frederic, who as a boy was supposed to have been apprenticed to a pilot of a seafaring ship, but his hearing-impaired nursemaid misunderstood and apprenticed him to a pirate. But Frederic, duty-bound to the point of absurdity, honored his commitment and served the pirates until he turned twenty-one, when he left his pirate band and set out to rid the world of piracy. He falls in love with Mabel, a daughter of the major-general, and life is looking up until his former pirate commander returns and informs Frederic that his contract with the pirates was to be effective until his twenty-first birthday. Having been born in leap year on February 29, Frederic has really had only five birthdays. His sense of duty compels him reluctantly to rejoin the pirates, promising to return to marry Mabel in 63 years.
There are many more hilarious subplots, like the pirates' leniency toward orphans and the policemens' fear of police work that I haven't even mentioned here.
Anyway, according to the story, Frederic's twenty-first birthday was to be in 1940, meaning February 29, 2008 was Frederic's 38th, so Friday night's party concluded with a "Happy Birthday Frederic" birthday cake.
Regarding the movie itself, I am baffled as to why it has never been released on DVD. (Especially given the volumes of outright garbage for miniscule niche audiences you can buy on home video.) Kevin Kline's agility and comic timing steal the show, and Rex Smith and Linda Rondstadt give the best performances of their careers. I was among those who never guessed either of them had it in them, but boy, can they sing! (Rondstadt can't act, but the show is so well-written she doesn't have to.) And the acrobatic dancing is amazing and just plain fun to watch.
On the off chance United Artists pays attention to online petitions, you can voice your support for a DVD release of the 1983 version of Pirates here. They've already missed the chance for a 25th-anniversary edition. Frederic's 40th birthday will be in 2016. I hope they don't wait that long.
When the DVD is released, I will be among the first to buy it, pop it in, and switch on the subtitles. God bless the person who evidently captured a broadcast in wide-screen with subtitles and posted these numbers on YouTube:
A Modern Major-General
When a Felon's Not Engaged in His Employment
A Paradox
It Really Doesn't Matter (Don't blink)
When the Foeman Bares His Steel
With Cat-like Tread
I wish one of these included the slow-motion tumbling during "Sighing softly to the river." We backed that up and watched that a few extra times.
For a rousing, frequently gut-bustingly funny bit of classic family entertainment, don't wait for the next February 29. Buy it while you can still buy VHS, rent it before the rental store's copy wears out, or before I rent it and "forget" to return it.
I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I am teeming with a lot o’ news –
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I’m very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
Come to think of it, a dictionary might have been handy too.
If you're unfamiliar with the story of The Pirates of Penzance and its connection with leap year, here's a teaser: The story is about a young man named Frederic, who as a boy was supposed to have been apprenticed to a pilot of a seafaring ship, but his hearing-impaired nursemaid misunderstood and apprenticed him to a pirate. But Frederic, duty-bound to the point of absurdity, honored his commitment and served the pirates until he turned twenty-one, when he left his pirate band and set out to rid the world of piracy. He falls in love with Mabel, a daughter of the major-general, and life is looking up until his former pirate commander returns and informs Frederic that his contract with the pirates was to be effective until his twenty-first birthday. Having been born in leap year on February 29, Frederic has really had only five birthdays. His sense of duty compels him reluctantly to rejoin the pirates, promising to return to marry Mabel in 63 years.
There are many more hilarious subplots, like the pirates' leniency toward orphans and the policemens' fear of police work that I haven't even mentioned here.
Anyway, according to the story, Frederic's twenty-first birthday was to be in 1940, meaning February 29, 2008 was Frederic's 38th, so Friday night's party concluded with a "Happy Birthday Frederic" birthday cake.
Regarding the movie itself, I am baffled as to why it has never been released on DVD. (Especially given the volumes of outright garbage for miniscule niche audiences you can buy on home video.) Kevin Kline's agility and comic timing steal the show, and Rex Smith and Linda Rondstadt give the best performances of their careers. I was among those who never guessed either of them had it in them, but boy, can they sing! (Rondstadt can't act, but the show is so well-written she doesn't have to.) And the acrobatic dancing is amazing and just plain fun to watch.
On the off chance United Artists pays attention to online petitions, you can voice your support for a DVD release of the 1983 version of Pirates here. They've already missed the chance for a 25th-anniversary edition. Frederic's 40th birthday will be in 2016. I hope they don't wait that long.
When the DVD is released, I will be among the first to buy it, pop it in, and switch on the subtitles. God bless the person who evidently captured a broadcast in wide-screen with subtitles and posted these numbers on YouTube:
A Modern Major-General
When a Felon's Not Engaged in His Employment
A Paradox
It Really Doesn't Matter (Don't blink)
When the Foeman Bares His Steel
With Cat-like Tread
I wish one of these included the slow-motion tumbling during "Sighing softly to the river." We backed that up and watched that a few extra times.
For a rousing, frequently gut-bustingly funny bit of classic family entertainment, don't wait for the next February 29. Buy it while you can still buy VHS, rent it before the rental store's copy wears out, or before I rent it and "forget" to return it.
posted by StarBittrune | 2:38 PM
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