Information for HMS Pinafore at Royal Hippodrome Theatre, Eastbourne (Opera or Operetta). HMS Pinafore premiered in 1878 at the Opera Comique in London, and became Gilbert and Sullivan's first smash hit, enjoying a successful run of 571 performances. Satirising the snobbery and hypocrisy of the English social system of its day. HMS Pinafore is a comic tale of love, class pretensions and mistaken identities. Questioning the integrity of the ruling elite and exposing the duplicitous motives of leaders of power, this comedy still has remarkable resonance today.