Lamplighters Musical Theatre has taken steps to connecting with larger audiences. The company has booked the revival of the delightful 2007 production of H.M.S. Pinafore into an expanded list of venues in all parts of the Bay Area; it’s now a region-wide company. Performances are in Walnut Creek, Livermore, Mountain View, Yountville (Lincoln Theatre), as well as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. If this strategy pays off, then a lot of theatergoers may be converted to the Lamplighters’ Church of Gilbert and Sullivan. And Pinafore is the natural choice to introduce audiences to the “canon.”
The very English goofiness of the show is faithfully reproduced by the Lamplighters’ experienced cast, which includes such company stalwarts as F. Lawrence Ewing, Jennifer Ashworth, and Sonia Gariaeff. In addition, this being the 100th anniversary year of the death of W.S. Gilbert, the company is giving away a free ticket to anyone named Gilbert (first names and surnames only).