Pirated! August 29, 2008

Pirated! puts a new spin on "The Pirated Penzance," an old Gilbert & Sullivan favorite. It's 1933, and tyrannical movie executive Roger Marshall is working on a "talkie" of the old classic. In an attempt to save money, he hires some has-been movie stars of the silent film era to act while some unsightly vocal actors provide the dialogue and singing from a sound booth. Chaos breaks loose when the vocal actors, led by Marshall's daughter's secret sweetheart Daniel Brown, stage a studio coup: putting their faces in front of the cameras, avoiding the police (who make obvious their silver screen ambitions with some song-and-dance numbers of their own), and ultimately breaking free from their manipulative contracts. Pirated! is written and directed by Jim Christian.