‘Pirates’ Invade Cda’S Playhouse

Thu., Nov. 5, 1998

By Jim Kershner jimkershner@comcast.net

The Lake City Playhouse in Coeur d’Alene presents Gilbert and Sullivan’s merry tale of buccaneers in love, “The Pirates of Penzance,” beginning this weekend.

This comic operetta was one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s biggest triumphs when it first opened in London in 1880, and it remains one of their best known works today thanks to its comical pirates, dewy-eyed heroine, Keystone Cop slapstick and noble young hero. It also has one of Gilbert’s finest patter songs (“I am the very model of a modern Major-General”) and some of Sullivan’s most memorable music.

It was revived in New York 100 years after its opening with a smash production starring Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline.

Lorna Hamilton directs the Lake City Playhouse version.

The show opens Friday with a premiere gala. Music and hors d’oeuvres begin at 7 p.m. with curtain at 8 p.m.

The run continues Saturday, Sunday and Nov. 12-15 and 19-21. Curtain is 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. on Thursdays, and 2 p.m. matinees on Saturdays and Sundays (there will be two performances each Saturday).

Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students and $6 for children 12 and under. Discount Thursday prices are $10, $8 and $3. For reservations, call (208) 667-1323.

The Lake City Playhouse is Coeur d’Alene’s community theater, located at the corner of 14th and Garden.

‘Orpheus in the Underworld’

The University of Idaho’s Hartung Theatre presents Offenbach’s 1859 comic operetta, “Orpheus in the Underworld,” beginning tonight.

This spoof of both grand opera and classical myth was Offenbach’s masterpiece, laying the foundation of a new form of wildly popular comic opera. With its satiric wit, much of it aimed at French society, and its exuberant can-can dance, it took Paris by storm.

Within weeks of its opening, Parisian organ grinders were playing practically nothing but tunes from “Orpheus in the Underworld.”

This UI production is a collaboration between the Theatre Arts Department and the Lionel Hampton School of Music. Tom Glynn directs.

The show opens tonight and continues Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Nov. 11-14. All shows are at 7:30 p.m., except the 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, at the Hartung Theatre on the UI campus in Moscow.

For tickets call (208) 885-7986.

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