D'Oyly Carte Returns to Savoy with Pinafore

The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which specialises in reviving the work of Gilbert and Sullivan, returns home to the Savoy Theatre for the first time in 11 years next month with a special season of its production of the duo's HMS Pinafore. The show opens on 24 February, previews from 23 February, and continues until 1 April 2000.

One of the most popular of the Savoy operettas, HMS Pinafore first opened in London in 1878. Its return will mark the first D'Oyly Carte production to be performed at the Savoy since the theatre reopened in 1993 after being virtually destroyed by fire three years earlier. The Savoy was originally built and opened in 1881 by Richard D'Oyly Carte and was the first public building to be lit throughout by electricity.

In HMS Pinafore, a humorous look at class relations is presented through the story of a humble sailor, Ralph, who has found out that the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Joseph Porter, is his rival for the hand of the captain's daughter in marriage. The score includes 'When I Was a Lad', 'I'm Called Little Buttercup' and 'For He Is an Englishman'.

The cast features Sam Kelly as Porter, Joseph Shovelton as Ralph, Tom McVeigh as Captain Corcoran, Yvonne Barclay as Josephine and Louise Crane as Hebe. HMS Pinafore is directed by Martin Duncan with design by Tim Hatley.

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