The Pirates of Penzance

Synopsis

'The Pirates of Penzance (or the Slave of Duty)' is probably the most humorous of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, with tuneful melodies and well known songs, Poor Wandering One, I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General, The Sergeant of Police and Policeman's Chorus.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 15 April 2010

I worried about this transfer of last year’s deserved Whatsonstage.com’s Best Off-West End Production award from the pocket handkerchief of the Union in Southwark to the echoing music hall of Wilton’s in the East End.

The worries lasted about ten minutes, when I realised that director Sasha Regan, choreographer Lizzi Gee and designer Robyn Wilson had re-imagined their own work in a new venue, exploiting its architectural properties, the end stage and the raised platforms, to the full.

They do this without losing the essence of the original which, in the arrival of the all-male wandering maids climbing over rocky mountains like Isadora Duncan acolytes in white skirts and halters is as at once as brilliant and heretical as Matthew Bourne’s vision of Swan Lake.

Only in Alan Richardson’s slightly tinny, and tiny, falsetto Mabel does the revival compare less well with last year’s; Richardson is brilliant in his own way...

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Latest User Review

Anne Papworth - 16 May 2010:

I have just seen this show for the second time(I enjoyed it so much the first time I just had to go again). I loved every minute of it both times. Alan Richardson as Mabel was superb, the rest of the cast were great and I really enjoyed being so close to the action in a small theatre....

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