June 29, 2000
When I Was Ten...
(This entry was written as a part of the Waning Poetic collab group.)
I was thinking about this particular collab topic and wondering what I'd write about. Then in the mail today I got the copy of the 1983 movie version of The Pirates of Penzance I'd won on eBay. You know, the Gilbert and Sullivan musical. (For the record, that's the source of all of today's quotes, as well.) My love for this particular operetta started early. Right about the time I was ten, in fact. I think in 1981 was when the New York Shakespeare Festival did their big revival production of it, of which I caught glimpses on things like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (my source of info on all things theatrical as a kid) and telethons and such. I thought it was fairly nifty.
Then my mom decided to join the Columbia Records Club (yup, they were still selling records then). She let me pick out some of the records I wanted. Lo and behold, they had the Broadway cast album of The Pirates of Penzance. I decided I wanted it. Got it, listened to it a few times, and lost interest. Most of it went over my head. The language was too formal and the music too close to classical. Rex Smith was kinda cute though. (I never said I had any taste when I was ten.)
Then in 1982, the summer I turned ten years old, The Pirate Movie came out. It wasn't until I was sitting in the theatre -- I believe with my best friend Stephanie, although it may have been my other best friend Michele -- that I learned that The Pirate Movie was an attempt at an updated remake of The Pirates of Penzance. "Hey," I told either Stephanie or Michele, "I have that record at home!" They failed to be impressed.
I, frankly, adored that movie. I walked out of the theatre that summer day with an overwhelming crush on Christopher Atkins. I thought he was the cutest thing I'd ever seen, and The Pirate Movie was the absolute pinnacle of moviegoing. It was romantic, it was funny, it was just 'dirty' enough to titilate a ten year old, and it had (I thought) awesome music. (Allow me to reiterate: I never said I had any taste when I was ten.) As soon as I got my allowance, I bought the soundtrack album, and listened to it incessantly. Stephanie and I would act out bits from the movie and dance around and sing along to the soundtrack. I must have seen it at least four times that summer.
I remember being outraged at the end of the year when it was resoundingly declared to be the worst movie of 1982. Looking back, of course, and having seen it once or twice since, I know just how awful it is. You can make the argument that they were doing exactly what Gilbert and Sullivan did when they originally wrote The Pirates of Penzance. I mean, both were meant to make fun of the society they sprang from, but The Pirate Movie ultimately lacks a lot of the wit that its predecessor holds.
It doesn't matter. The Pirate Movie turned me back onto The Pirates of Penzance, which remained a mainstay of my album collection until I lost all my albums when I left Gary. By the time I was in high school the role of Ruth (the matronly alto character -- a type that shows up in every G&S operetta) was one of my dream roles. My sophomore year in college we did a production of Pirates and I got my one and only chance to play one of my dream roles when I was cast as Ruth. It was seriously the pinnacle of my theatrical career.
And to think, I owe it all to Christopher Atkins and Kristy McNichol.
Damn it. Now I've got The Pirate Movie soundtrack stuck in my head. Not only that, I'm feeling horribly nostalgic to see the movie again.
Posted by Lisa at June 29, 2000 10:11 PM
