UWM and Milwaukee Opera Theatre Set Sail With a Playful “Pinafore”

UWM Peck School of the Arts and Milwaukee Opera Theatre’s H.M.S. Pinafore. Photo by Mark Frohna.

Musical theater fans may not know how often they have heard the patter and operatic melodies of Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore.

Its songs have echoed in films as different as “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Chariots of Fire,” and the operetta even played a part in a “West Wing” episode featuring a White House staff duel to the tune of “He Is an Englishman.”

It has inspired the current collaboration between the Milwaukee Opera Theatre (MOT) and the UWM Peck School of the Arts, using some eminent faculty and community names to work with a cast of mainly theater and music students.

The quality of performing arts students at Milwaukee’s two major universities is simultaneously on display in different ways, both containing excellent voices and youthful exuberance. But the circumstances are quite different.

Under tight directorial control and an effective emphasis on believability, Marquette University shows some of its best in a fine production at the Skylight Music Theatre of Fiddler on the Roof.

The purpose is quite different, as was the rehearsal time, at UWM’s theater, where the concept is a comic bouillabaisse – a stew not to be believable but to fish around in, even with audience participation.

Artistically, this is dangerous territory. These operettas are usually kept regimented—maidens dancing in on tiptoe, men exaggerated in costume and manner, but all under stately control.

Here, veteran theater practitioner and UWM lecturer Jeffrey Mosser combined with MOT’s waggish-with-meaning leader Jill Anna Ponasik to co-direct this version and rewrite it.

Their capabilities are evident in how the ship’s deck is a comic tangle of ropes, games and mischief, the crew is a barely controlled and fairly ridiculous Greek chorus and the lyrics suddenly speak of Kopps, pierogies and other local favorites. His Majesty’s Ship apparently sails Lake Michigan.

The directors have the talent, but they have fallen into making a spoof of a spoof, with the actors en masse trying to laugh and mug it up. It is hard to know when they are wiping egg off their face or intending to wallow in it.

The consolation, if you listen carefully, is that there are some very good singers here who could do this straight if they were ordered to, but they are being asked to behave as college pranksters in a vaudeville show. There is actually some strong vocalizing here – I’ll mention Josh Thone and Serena Vasquez – but it is almost lost in the spirit of mugging.

There is a fine quartet of musicians — including music director Donna Kummer — plus ample opportunities for the talented performers to grab some instruments to fly in on the side. Fellow college students may laugh, but the effort has limited appeal.

The UWM theater’s thrust stage hasn’t changed much since I taught there in the 1980s, but the youth movement shows in other ways—like scanning tickets and downloading programs on smartphones. Performances run through Sunday, with details available on Milwaukee Opera Theatre’s website.

Dominique Paul Noth served for decades as film and drama critic, later senior editor for features at the Milwaukee Journal. You’ll find his blog here and here. For his Dom’s Snippets go to domnoth.substack.com