Media Archive

They’re back! That wacky and delightful crew out of Chicago– The Hypocrites cap their Gilbert and Sullivan trilogy with a transgendered H.M.S. Pinafore, where Li’l Buttercup (Matt Kahler) happens to be a brawny baritone, still shyly in love with Captain Cat Coran (Emily Casey). 

The Hypocrites are back. Now they’re weighing anchor with the last of the three most popular G&S operettas, the nautical parody “H.M.S. Pinafore,” trading in those smart British Navy uniforms for multicolored pajamas and fuzzy slippers.

Under the Direction of Saugus native Sean Graney, the Hypocrites have embedded their daring DNA into the usually button-ed-up Gilbert & Sullivan oeuvre,  This is not your grandfather’s D’Oyly Carte production of “H.M.S. Pinafore.” 

Never mind the why and wherefore, love can level ranks and therefore you ought to get to Oberon where ART is presenting the Hypocrites’ production of “H.M.S. Pinafore” (“or the Lass That Loved a Sailor”) for their third visit.

Get ready for some nautical japes: Chicago-based acting company The Hypocrites return to Oberon, the American Repertory Theater’s second space (through March 20), with another of their remixed, amped-up Gilbert and Sullivan productions.

The smart and smart aleck antics completely change the specifics of the play and in doing so honor its spirit better than any production I’ve seen.

This is a campy romp that comes complete with gender-flipped role-playing, floral print flannel pajamas, pillow fights in a mosh-pit like pool, and a group of 10 actors, game-for-anything, who can accompany their singing on guitar, banjo, accordion, violin, toy piano and more. And yes, there is a bar on the premises.

The Hypocrites add to their thoroughly delightful revisionist repertory of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas with the launch of H.M.S. Pinafore.

H.M.S. Pinafore by Hypocrites: Sean Graney takes his audiences along for another delightful voyage

Welcome to the lewd and crude “Ubu Sings Ubu,” which mashes up Jarry’s scatological satire of power, corruption, and bourgeois complacency with the seminal art-punk songs of Cleveland experimental garage rockers Pere Ubu.

Ms. Muz is perhaps best remembered for arriving at the opening party wearing only a pale dusting of glitter over her nipples. (A mistake, she acknowledged: “I should have put lipstick on them to make them pop.”)

Loud, inspired and more than a little deranged, “Ubu Sings Ubu” mixes a Google Translate version of Alfred Jarry’s 1896 scatalogical satire, “Ubu Roi,” with songs written by the experimental rock band Pere Ubu. And it works. This is “Ubu” as punk cabaret, dynamic dance numbers and all.