Among its other influences on popular culture, Pinafore had perhaps its most profound influence on the development of musical theatre.
According to theatre historian John Kenrick, Pinafore "became an international sensation, reshaping the commercial theater in both England and the United States."
The music writer Andrew Lamb notes, "The success of H.M.S. Pinafore in 1879 established British comic opera alongside French opéra bouffe throughout the English-speaking world".
The historian John Bush Jones opines that Pinafore and the other Savoy operas demonstrate that musical theatre "can address contemporary social and political issues without sacrificing entertainment value" and that Pinafore created the model for a new kind of musical theatre, the "integrated" musical, where "book, lyrics, and music combined to form an integral whole".
He adds that its "unprecedented ... popularity fostered an American audience for musical theatre, while the show itself became a model for form, content, and even intention of ... musicals ever since, especially socially relevant musicals."
Its popularity also led to the musical theatre adaptations of Pinafore described above, musicals in which the story line involves a production of Pinafore and other musicals that parody the opera or that use or adapt its music.
The first such parody was a short-lived burlesque presented at the Opera Comique in 1882, called The Wreck of the Pinafore by William Horace Lingard and Luscombe Searelle; the opera's characters are shipwrecked on a desert island.
It was described by The Era as "chiefly remarkable for its impudence".
Among its other influences on popular culture, Pinafore had perhaps its most profound influence on the development of musical theatre. According to theatre historian John Kenrick, Pinafore "became an international sensation, reshaping the commercial theater in both England and the United States." The music writer Andrew Lamb notes, "The success of H.M.S. Pinafore in 1879 established British comic opera alongside French opéra bouffe throughout the English-speaking world". The historian John Bush Jones opines that Pinafore and the other Savoy operas demonstrate that musical theatre "can address contemporary social and political issues without sacrificing entertainment value" and that Pinafore created the model for a new kind of musical theatre, the "integrated" musical, where "book, lyrics, and music combined to form an integral whole". He adds that its "unprecedented ... popularity fostered an American audience for musical theatre, while the show itself became a model for form, content, and even intention of ... musicals ever since, especially socially relevant musicals." Its popularity also led to the musical theatre adaptations of Pinafore described above, musicals in which the story line involves a production of Pinafore and other musicals that parody the opera or that use or adapt its music. The first such parody was a short-lived burlesque presented at the Opera Comique in 1882, called The Wreck of the Pinafore by William Horace Lingard and Luscombe Searelle; the opera's characters are shipwrecked on a desert island. It was described by The Era as "chiefly remarkable for its impudence".
H.M.S. Pinafore