The Pirates of Penzance (film)
The Pirates of Penzance is a 1983 romantic musical comedy film written and directed by Wilford Leach based on Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera of the same name.The film, starring Kevin Kline, Angela Lansbury, Linda Ronstadt, George Rose, and Rex Smith, is an adaptation of the 1980 Joseph Papp production of Pirates.The original Broadway cast reprised their roles in the film, except that Lansbury replaced Estelle Parsons as Ruth.However, Ruth reveals that the pirates are all "noblemen who have gone wrong"; the Major-General pardons them and invites them to resume their parliamentary ranks and to marry his beautiful daughters.During its promotional campaign for the film, Universal announced that it would release it in the US on February 18, 1983, simultaneously in theaters and on subscription television, an unprecedented strategy for Hollywood that was not repeated until 2020, when the same studio gave the animated film Trolls World Tour a similar treatment due to the COVID-19 pandemic."[4] Universal stated that it made the decision because Pirates was a relatively small release compared to the Superman and Rocky films of the same period:[3] "We don't see the pay-per-view showing as competitive with theaters.[2] The film was a box office bomb, and some audience members found it disappointing in comparison with the Broadway production.[8] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune remarked that "having sat through four incarnations of this Joseph Papp production, the original Broadway cast, the Chicago road company, the premiere telecast here on the pay channel ON TV, and Saturday's matinee at the 400 Theater, The Pirates of Penzance earns my respect as a durable and satisfying entertainment."[5] Janet Maslin had a more mixed review to offer the film in The New York Times: The Pirates of Penzance has been made into a cheerful movie, but it isn't nearly as deft or distinctive here as it was on stage.... [T]he irreverence seemed wittier and less broad on the stage than it does here, undermined as it is by awkward camera angles, fussy scenery and a general loss of spontaneity.