Saturday 26th March 2016. 10am – 12 noon. Free entry. Eastbourne’s Under Ground Theatre is again delighted to offer a sneak preview of the next annual production from the local Gilbert & Sullivan Society. The Society’s choice for 2016 is one of their very popular works – HMS PINAFORE – which will be coming to Eastbourne’s Devonshire Park Theatre in May. But you can hear some of the highlights when the G & S Society take to the stage this morning The fourth collaboration between Gilbert & Sullivan was their first blockbuster hit: “HMS Pinafore”, or “The Lass That Loved a Sailor.” This opera opened May 28, 1878 at the Opera Comique. It ran for 571 performances and became a huge fad in England and in America, being copied illegally by dozens of performing companies in the US, as well as being presented there by Gilbert & Sullivan and Carte themselves. Pinafore is among the most popular Gilbert and Sullivan operas, perhaps because of its infectious tunes and generally well-constructed libretto. Drawing on several of his earlier “bab ballad” poems, Gilbert embued HMS Pinafore with mirth and silliness to spare. The opera’s gentle satire reprises and builds upon one of The Sorcerer’s themes: Love between members of different social classes. The curtain goes up at 10am – and the show continues until noon. Entry is free. In addition to selections from “Pinafore”, you may also get some familiar songs from operettas such “The Mikado” and “The Gondoliers”. Throughout their performance, Fairtrade coffee and tea and home-made cakes will be on sale in the Under Ground coffee-bar – which will stay open until 4pm for viewing of the latest foyer art.
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