Sasha Regan’s All-Male The Pirates Of Penzance Returns To Screens Over Easter

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Due to popular demand, Sasha Regan’s award-winning all-male take on W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan’s The Pirates Of Penzance returns to screens from Monday 29^th March – Monday 5^th April 2021 on www.stream.theatre . Recorded live at the Palace Theatre London in December, just before Lockdown 2, the recent streaming makes a very welcome comeback over Easter.  Whether we are still in lockdown or not, expect a much-needed dose of musical comedy in the comfort and safety of home.

The Pirates Of Penzance sees one of Gilbert & Sullivan’s best-known, much loved classic operettas recorded in a theatre founded by Richard D’Oyly Carte in the 1800s as the Royal English Opera House.  D’Oyly Carte who was already producing comic operas at his Savoy Theatre, decided to commission the Opera House as a home for grand operas. The Royal English Opera House opened 10 years after the Savoy Theatre which championed Gilbert & Sullivan’s well-known “Savoy operas”. Although their operettas never ran at the Royal English Opera House, it opened in January 1891 with Sir Arthur Sullivan’s Ivanhoe. Sadly, D’Oyly Carte’s cherished opera house came under financial pressure leaving him with no alternative but to lease it and eventually sell it within one year of opening.

Throughout his life, D’Oyly Carte managed Gilbert & Sullivan and nurtured their careers including setting up the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. Together these talented men introduced a new way of presenting light opera to families, touring these works to bring them out to the wider community.

Sasha Regan’s production was first staged at her original 50-seater Union Theatre in Southwark over a decade ago. From day one it became a critically acclaimed overnight hit, winning Best Off-West End production in the 2009 WhatsOnStage Awards. Following several sell-out runs in the UK, the merry band of pirates toured Australia including a three-week run at the Sydney Theatre thanks to Cate Blanchett then the co-artistic director. It enjoyed another sell-out run at Wilton’s Music Hall last year.

Expect plenty of hilarity from the swashbuckling crew!