It's official: "Pirates!" to sail at Paper Mill

Well, they got it done. After all the angst, Paper Mill Playhouse will launch its production of "Pirates!" on schedule June 7.

Short on time so I'll cut and paste a bit from the press release:

Paper Mill Playhouse (Millburn, NJ) announces its mainstage production of Pirates!, a swashbuckling adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, a fully-staged theatrical concert with costumes, choreography and sword fighting. This newly reworked masterpiece conceived by Gordon Greenberg (Jacques Brel…), Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde), and John McDaniel (The Rosie O’Donnell Show) will run at the Millburn theatre from June 7, 2007 through July 8, 2007. The production stars Farah Alvin (Mabel), Ed Dixon (Modern Major General), Barrett Foa (Frederic), Liz McCartney (Ruth), Gerry McIntyre (Sergeant) and Andrew Varela (The Pirate King).

Pirates! with book and lyrics by Sir William S. Gilbert, music by Sir Arthur S. Sullivan was conceived by Gordon Greenberg, Nell Benjamin, and John McDaniel with additional book & lyrics by Nell Benjamin, music supervision, new arrangements, and orchestrations by John McDaniel. The journey of this updated version of The Pirates of Penzance began at Paper Mill Playhouse in 2005 when Director Gordon Greenberg was in final rehearsals for The Baker’s Wife. Greenberg and the artistic staff began discussing ideas for a “Caribbean” adaptation of the classic Gilbert and Sullivan score. In 2006, the creative team that would ultimately create Pirates! met in New York City with Goodspeed Musicals and Paper Mill Playhouse to pitch the concept. Both theatres enthusiastically embraced the idea and commissioned the team to create this redeveloped work.

Gordon Greenberg, director of the Off-Broadway hit Jacques Brel…, will direct Paper Mill’s Pirates!. Previously, Greenberg directed The Bakers Wife for both Goodspeed Musicals and Paper Mill Playhouse and the national tour of Peter Pan. Warren Carlyle associate choreographer of The Producers and Oklahoma on Broadway will choreograph Pirates!.

Adapted from the original Gilbert and Sullivan libretto and set to a Caribbean inspired score, Director Gordon Greenberg navigates Pirates! into the 21st century, complete with swordfights and sex appeal. After a hard-of-hearing nurse mistakes the word "pilot" for "pirate," young Frederic finds himself apprenticed to a band of swashbuckling buccaneers. Now a young man, and with his final days of servitude rapidly approaching, he longs for a return to respectable life. But in true Gilbert and Sullivan style, mishap after mishap arises, and it will take a fair maiden, a fair amount of double-crossing, and the very model of a modern major general to reach a happy ending.

The company of Pirates! is led by veteran actors Farah Alvin (Mabel), Ed Dixon (Modern Major General), Barrett Foa (Frederic), Liz McCartney (Ruth), Gerry McIntyre (Sergeant) and Andrew Varela (The Pirate King). Farah Alvin was featured in the Off-Broadway drama I Love You Because and recently released an album entitled Someday. Ed Dixon, a Paper Mill favorite, last appeared on the Paper Mill stage as Max in The Sound of Music. His Broadway credits include: The Iceman Cometh, The Best Man, Cyrano, Les Miserables, The Three Musketeers, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Barrett Foa made his Broadway debut in 2001 in the original cast of Mamma Mia followed by a critically acclaimed performance as the evil Mordred in Camelot at Paper Mill. Most recently he played the role of Leaf Coneybear in the Broadway Company of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Princeton/Rod in Avenue Q. Liz McCartney is best known for her performances on Broadway in Mamma Mia, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, and the original cast of Taboo. Gerry McIntyre starred on Broadway in Joesph…Dreamcoat, Anything Goes, and the original company of Once on this Island. On Broadway, Andrew Varela appeared as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, Professor Bhaer in Little Women and King David.

There you go. Now I'm off the the Womens Theater Company production of "Painting Churches" (Review Preview should be posted some time tomorrow). I love their new home at the Parsippany Community Center, five minutes from my house and about 10 feet from where I'll be playing golf on Sunday.

Then, somehow, I ended up with the entire weekend off after having to plan on working all weekend. My dancing deadlines lately move more often than James Brown on the Apollo stage. Somehow, the latest round of changes worked in my favor. That NEVER happens, so I'm still a little wary.

As my friend Herb used to say (usually around 2 a.m.), "Journalism ... what was I thinking?" God help me, I love it so.