UMGASS 'Pirates of Penzance' performance ends in real-life marriage proposal

Audience members of UMGASS’ April 13 performance of “The Pirates of Penzance” got to experience two happy endings, thanks to a surprise proposal involving two cast members during the show’s standing ovation curtain call.

Jonathan Roselle, a pirate in the chorus, had the actor who played the Doctor of Divinity bring Alexandra Kahn, who played Mabel, to the front of the stage, and then Roselle proposed.

Here’s a video that captured the moment; Roselle stops the show at just before the two minute mark.

UMGASS veteran and videographer Karl Zinn described the moment in an email: “Just before the end of the curtain calls, Jon Roselle in pirate attire, with his father a pirate behind him on the stage and his mother in the fourth row, made a quite proper and effective proposal of marriage to Ali Kahn, with her parents and sister and grandmother in the second row.”

Roselle and Kahn met during the 2008 UMGASS production of “Yeoman of the Guard.” Roselle graduated from Pioneer High (’05) and U-M (’09) and works in Ann Arbor as a consultant. Kahn hails from Briarcliff Manor, New York and came to Ann Arbor in 2007 to attend U-M (’11). She’ll earn her masters degree in accounting from U-M this year.

Jenn McKee is an entertainment reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.