Park Square presents new spin on Victorian 'Penzance'

In Park Square's adaptation of "The Pirates of Penzance," a merry band of players sets sail for America, not realizing they have left their scripts for the brand-new Gilbert and Sullivan operetta back home. But they turn their frowns — and the audience's — upside-down with a farcical, surprisingly accurate, recreation-from-memory of the show. Creators Doug Scholz-Carlson and Bradley Greenwald (who plays composer Arthur Sullivan) and the cast succeed in making the Victorian-era piece feel fresh, especially in Christina Baldwin's light-speed delivery of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General," a song you could argue invented rap. (7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun. Ends March 25. Park Square Theatre, 20 W. 7th Place, St. Paul, $25-$60, 651-291-7005 or parksquaretheatre.org)