Hollywood Pinafore or The Lad Who Loved a Salary
THE STORY: Joseph Porter heads Pinafore Pictures amid a swirl of recognizable Hollywood types: Louhedda Hopsons, a gossip columnist; a veritable chain gang of imprisoned screen writers and “dumb blondes” looking to become famous; a devious agent; and Brenda Blossom, a love-struck starlet pining for a lowly writer, yet promised in marriage to the studio head by her father (a director looking to advance his own career). What’s Brenda to do? If she marries the poor, starving screen writer, Ralph, she’ll be tossed out of Hollywood and forced to make a living on (gasp!) the stage. It’s too much to be endured. Fortunately, everything turns out for the best for everyone when it is discovered that a mix-up in Louhedda’s column was responsible for Ralph’s fall from grace. In reality, it was Ralph who was meant to head the studio instead of Porter. Upon this classic turnaround, happiness befalls each of the characters in turn—just what you’d expect from a Hollywood picture.
Originally presented on Broadway in the spring of 1945, and directed by George S. Kaufman himself, HOLLYWOOD PINAFORE has never before been published in its entirety—until now. With loving respect for what makes Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore a masterpiece, Kaufman’s dazzling lyric writing transplants the maritime world of the original Pinafore to the Californian milieu he knows best: the glamorous world of Hollywood film making. And all the while, he’s kept Sir Arthur Sullivan’s charming score intact, complete with all the favorites you remember from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.
