Batley Gilbert & Sullivan Society

Events Diary

Did You Know

From Gilbert's Bab Ballads The Englishman

• Our 67th production and the seventh time we've produced "HMS Pinafore". As on all but one of the the previous productions, this was a double bill with "Trial by Jury".
• H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor first opened at the Opera Comique in London, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical theatre piece up to that time. H.M.S. Pinafore was Gilbert and Sullivan's fourth operatic collaboration and their first international sensation.
• In 1945, George S. Kaufman adopted HMS Pinafore to produce "Hollywood Pinafore" (with a secondary title of The Lad Who Loved a Salary). The adaptation transplants the maritime satire of the original Pinafore to a satire of the glamorous world of 1940s Hollywood film making, but Sullivan's score is retained with minor adaptations. It includes numbers such as "Little Butter-Up, "An Agent's Lot is Not a Happy One" and "I'm a Big Director at Pinafore".