by Gilbert & Sullivan
The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players

A month before the opening of the The Pirates of Penzance, the music was not finished. Sullivan and Gilbert had landed in America with about half the work done. Then Sullivan made an appalling discovery. Sullivan found that he had left all his sketches for the last act at home, in England. In his hotel he set about the incredible task of writing long into the night to recreate the score. He was not helped in this endeavor by the reoccurrence of an old illness.

On the night of December 30th, after the final dress-rehearsal, Sullivan returned to his hotel and began work on the overture, finishing it at five o'clock on the morning of the 31st, and rehearsing it six hours later.

Sullivan was not well enough to eat the day of the Pirates premiere, so he went to bed in the afternoon and tried to sleep. That evening, more dead than alive he made his way to the theatre, took his place in the orchestra, lifted his baton, and The Pirates of Penzance swept New York off its feet! The Pirates of Penzance has remained one of the most popular and enduring works of musical theater.