Last year, my friend Liz and I spent many conversations gushing over our favorite movie musical adaptation, the 1983 HBO version of “The Pirates of Penzance.” We talked about how lame it was to watch it on VHS, which prompted my Christmas shopping quest of 2008: to find a DVD copy as her Christmas gift. After many hours of searching obscure media websites all over the world, I finally secured a copy for each of us. It was horribly overpriced, as it was a VHS-to-DVD transfer of questionable quality, but it was SO WORTH IT. Because of my success, she dubbed me “The Eternal Undisputed Queen of Awesomeness.”

And now, a year later, a much better version is available for free on Hulu. I could have asked for no better gift myself.


And now, time for some of my favorite quotes:

“Individually, I love you all with affection unspeakable; but, collectively, I look upon you with a disgust that amounts to absolute detestation. Oh! pity me, my beloved friends, for such is my sense of duty that, once out of my indentures, I shall feel myself bound to devote myself heart and soul to your extermination!” Frederic

“A sad mistake it was to make
And doom him to a vile lot.
I bound him to a pirate – you!
Instead of to a pilot.” Ruth

“Every moment brings a treasure
Of its own especial pleasure;
Though the moments quickly die,
Greet them gaily as they fly” Edith

“Here, in this our rocky den,
Far away from mortal men,
We’ll be queens, and make decrees –
They may honour them who please.” Kate

“Oh, is there not one maiden here
Whose homely face and bad complexion
Have caused all hope to disappear
Of ever winning man’s affection?
To such an one, if such there be,
I swear by Heaven’s arch above you,
If you will cast your eyes on me,
However plain you be – I’ll love you!” Frederic

“For my military knowledge, though I’m plucky and adventury,
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General!” The Major General

“Hail, Poetry, thou heav’n-born maid!
Thou gildest e’en the pirate’s trade.
Hail, flowing fount of sentiment!
All hail! All hail! Divine emollient!” All Cast

“Go, ye heroes, go to glory,
Though you die in combat gory!
Ye shall live in song and story.
Go to immortality!
Go to death, and go to slaughter;
Die, and every Cornish daughter
With her tears your grave shall water.
Go, ye heroes, go and die!” Mabel

“No matter. Our course is clear: we must do our best to capture these pirates alone. It is most distressing to us to be the agents whereby our erring fellow-creatures are deprived of that liberty which is so dear to us all – but we should have thought of that before we joined the force. Well, too late now!” Police Sergeant

“Come, friends, who plough the sea!
Truce to navigation, Take another station;
Let’s vary piracee with a little burglaree!” All Pirates