The Paper Mill Playhouse is finally pulling out of its financial difficulties, with the promise of brighter tomorrows. Therefore, fiddling with Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir William S. Gilbert's Pirates of Penzance so that it acquires a heightened Pirates of the Caribbean commercial gloss may sound like a prescient idea for an outfit now openly in need of box-office sure things.

As it happens, the long-planned Pirates! -- boasting that exclamation point to imply added high-seas excitement -- sails into port with numerous entertainment treasures in its hold. But the audience's abundant enjoyment of the show has little to do with the contemporary treatment given by director-conceiver Gordon Gr[...]