Students and parents filled the Performing Arts Center at King School last weekend for riveting performances of Pirates of Penzance, a comic operetta. The musical follows the tale of Frederick, a young buccaneer who finds himself torn between his duty to his fellow pirates and his love for the major general's daughter, Mabel.

The opera, one of the most popular to come of the collaboration between W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, premiered in New York City in 1879 and has filled theaters across the globe ever since. Joseph Papp modernized it in the 1980s, and with Kevin Kline playing the lead, he brought it to Broadway and the New York Shakespeare Festival. The production made its way to the King stage for a three-day run in early March.

Luisa Simon ’22 worked closely with voice teacher Stephanie Gregory to prepare for the role of Mabel. “I started training classically with my voice teacher a little less than a year ago, and I was truly astounded by what Ms.Gregory was able to extract from me when we began the rehearsal process for this show,” Luisa said. “She encouraged me to sing in ways I never thought I could before.”

Luisa was astounded at the cast's performance as well, adding that the student actors rehearsed for two months to prepare for the show. Zachary Louizos ’25 stepped into the lead role of Frederick, also working closely with King’s voice teacher in preparation.

“The biggest challenge I faced was being able to sing some of the higher notes,” said Zachary. “I worked with Ms. Gregory to overcome these vocal challenges.”

“I also had some trouble understanding what characters meant at certain points because of the older words that they would sometimes use,” he said. Zachary watched other productions of the play online to better understand the script in context.

“My favorite part about playing Frederick was getting to embody the naiveness of the character and use that trait to create hilarious interactions with the other characters. I really enjoyed performing in the musical with my classmates,” he said.  

The performance can be viewed online here.