In 1879, Harvard astronomers rewrote Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pinafore. In 1929 they performed it. In 2012, its unique blend of songs, science, skirts, and satire will live again.
The Observatory Pinafore captures a past world where computers were women and staying up all night was more a matter of business than of pleasure.
What happens when a sinister group of men from a rival institution plot to steal away Harvard’s star star observer? Travel back in time to meet squabbling scientists, malfunctioning instruments, and terrible rhyming couplets in this reworking of a classic operetta.
Fans of G&S as well as of physics will find much to enjoy in this quirky introduction to the history of astronomy.