I have no idea what this enormous production is.  Well, I know I saw a bunch of actors having a great time onstage.  They sing.  They D-A-N-C-E.  They leap tall buildings at a single bound.  Ships.  They leap ships.  To and from Ships.  Ramin Karimloo (Pirate King) is the point person for that and does not disappoint.

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I am not a Gilbert & Sullivan aficionado – and it might have helped if I were.  While no other writers are listed, very few musical numbers sounded like Gilbert & Sullivan.  I know that this production has been adapted by Rupert Holmes.  What he did remains a mystery to me.  Perhaps that is the point.  This is a stylized musical that reminds a person of Gilbert & Sullivan.  Relocated to the New Orleans French Quarter, it is the tale of a Pirate King (and orphan) who has blown into town with an 8-man crew who are released upon the city to hunt down eligible women.  They cross paths with Major-General Stanley (David Hyde Pierce), who happens to have fathered the same number of daughters on every continent.  They are all gathered under his protection in New Orleans.  The pirate of the day is Frederic (Nicholas Barasch), who is about to be released from his apprenticeship to the Pirates (a grammatical error had him sent to pirates instead of pilots).  Upon release he intends to join the police and hunt down his erstwhile friends.  Go figure.  On this day, however, he sees Mabel Stanley (Samantha Williams), who is, in Frederic’s eyes, the standout of the 8 daughters.

Hot on Frederic’s trail is his nanny, Ruth (Jinkx Monsoon), who has more than a motherly instinct in his future.

There is great to-ing and fro-ing with some dazzling dancing that makes the people sitting in their chairs dizzy enough to stop the show with howls of appreciation.  There are the familiar music numbers – even for an uneducated person like me – “Poor Wand’ring One,” “I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major General,” and several that are borrowed from other G&S productions.  These are duly noted in the program.

The rest of the music (and there is a boatload of it) I am presuming to be from “The Pirates Of Penzance” (produced here in 1981, New York by the Public Theatre, starring Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt).  As I knew none of these numbers, the performances were fascinating but not engaging.  I was busy trying to figure out the thread of the plot and how much of this was from “Penzance” the original.  I was wasting my own time.

The Artistic team of Scott Ellis, Rupert Holmes, Warren Carlyle, and Joseph Joubert, who put this show together, does not seem to have been reaching for anything other than having a good time.  Jolly good fun and all that.  While the choices of material may not be astonishing in any way – the only thing left out was the kitchen sink – they did include washboards and one banjo – the cast they have assembled takes the show to the moon and back.  Karimloo brings the same stage electricity he brought to Nicky Arnstein in “Funny Girl”.  He is riveting.  Whoever is in his crosshairs gets a dose of his flare, whether it is David Hyde Pierce or the audience itself.  Pierce is perfection as the General with love in his heart and a lot of empty space in his attic.  Jinkx Monsoon hurls herself into Ruth with a mighty force.  The romantic leads have little to do except sing their hearts out – and THAT they do indeed.  The ensemble cast is over-the-top with energy, enthusiasm, pipes of gold, and a willingness not only to have a good time but to spread the wealth.

Whatever-the-heck “Pirates! The Penzance Musical” is trying to be, you can be assured that a good time is waiting for you in the French Quarter that never was.

Pirates! The Penzance Musical by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, Adaptation by Rupert Holmes, Directed by Scott Ellis. Conceived By Scott Ellis, Rupert Holmes, Warren Carlyle, And Joseph Joubert

WITH  Ramin Karimloo (Pirate King), Jinkx Monsoon (Ruth), David Hyde Pierce (Gilbert/Major General Stanley), Nicholas Barasch(Frederic), Preston Truman Boyd (Sullivan/Police Sergeant) and Samantha Williams (Mabel Stanley). The cast also includes Kelly Belarmino, Maria Briggs, Cicily Daniels, Ninako Donville, Alex Dorf, Rick Faugno, Niani Feelings, Tommy Gedrich, Alex Gibson, Afra Hines, Dan Hoy, Ryo Kamibayashi, Tatiana Lofton, Nathan Lucrezio, Shina Ann Morris, Tyrone L. Robinson, Cooper Stanton, and Bronwyn Tarboton.

The design team includes scenic design by Tony Award-winner David Rockwell, costume design by Linda Cho, lighting design by Donald Holder, sound design by Mikaal Sulaiman, and dance arrangements by John O’Neill

Through July 27 at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Todd Haimes Theatre.  TICKETS