{"id":23281,"date":"2016-10-29T02:40:28","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T06:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=23281"},"modified":"2016-10-29T02:40:59","modified_gmt":"2016-10-29T06:40:59","slug":"httpwww-thevalleyledger-comp1904-451","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=23281","title":{"rendered":"Muhlenberg\u2019s Pirates of Penzance Review &#8211; By: Dustin Lee Yenser"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Photo Courtesy Muhlenberg College of Department of Theatre &amp; Dance<\/span><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Muhlenberg College\u2019s energetic and eye-catching production of <i>The Pirates of Penzance<\/i> opened to a sold-out crowd Friday night. The classic Gilbert &amp; Sullivan comedy tells the tale of Frederic, a young man from an honorable family mistakenly apprenticed to a pirate king. Having served out his indenture, Frederic is eager to rejoin respectable society. He immediately falls for Mabel, one of the many daughters of an old general, and finds himself torn between pursuing his love and honoring his obligations to his former crew.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Vocal performances are strong throughout, anchored by the powerful voice of Felice Amsellem as Mabel. The three ensembles, Pirates, Daughters, and Policemen, throw themselves fully into their roles, dancing and dodging and diving across the stage at the breakneck pace of controlled chaos. There is never a dull moment among the supporting actors. The Daughters in particular did a great job of establishing distinct characters among the crowd. Some of the most entertaining moments come in the interplay between charming Frederic (Kyle Watkins), his scheming maid (Kelly Shannon), and the dashing Pirate King (Alan Mendez).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The sets are beautiful and beautifully lit. The textures of the Cornish cliffs and chapel ruins feel alive onstage. Several hidden entrance and exit points allow the actors to fully occupy the space. A lively orchestra keeps the audience members emotionally engaged in the story while the excellent acoustics of the Empie Theatre allow them to enjoy the natural warmth and intensity of the singers\u2019 voices without the flattening effect of artificial amplification. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The Pirates of Penzance<\/span><\/i><span style=\"margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"> runs until Sunday, November 6 at the Dorothy and Dexter Baker Center for the Arts on the campus of Muhlenberg College. Running time is approximately 2 hours with one intermission. <\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.muhlenberg.edu\/main\/academics\/theatre-dance\/onstage\/pirates.html\"><span style=\"margin: 0px; color: #1155cc; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;\"><u>Click here<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"> for more information!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=22539\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-22869 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pirates-of-penzance-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"pirates-of-penzance-300x300\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pirates-of-penzance-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pirates-of-penzance-300x300-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pirates-of-penzance-300x300-180x180.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class='adkingprobanner sidebar banner3023'><a href='http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/' target=\"_blank\" data-id='3023' data-ga='{\"campaign\":\"\",\"banner\":\"\",\"implemented\":\"universal\",\"imp_action\":\"Impression\",\"click_action\":\"Click\"}'><img src='https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/inpostblank.jpg' alt='' \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class='adkingprobanner sidebar banner7036'><a href='http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com' target=\"_blank\" data-id='7036' data-ga='{\"campaign\":\"\",\"banner\":\"\",\"implemented\":\"universal\",\"imp_action\":\"Impression\",\"click_action\":\"Click\"}'><img src='https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/inpostblank.jpg' alt='' \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?post_type=adverts_posts&p=7036\" class=\"read-more\">Click here to read more... <\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4648,1024,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dustin-lee-yenser","category-entertainment","category-in-the-valley"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/berg-pirates.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}