HMS Pinafore - (Dauntless Dick Deadeye)

Synopsis

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.

Our Review:

22 July 2005

After a rare misstep last year with the irretrievably dated Broadway musical Camelot, the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park bounces back with a nicely updated British classic, HMS Pinafore.

While Camelot came from 1960 and seemed positively antique, HMS Pinafore - originally premiered in 1878 - is both timeless and yet firmly anchored by its social satire of Victorian society and values. Gilbert and Sullivan's fourth collaboration but their first blockbuster hit, it is a class comedy revolving around status of birth and office, setting up a convoluted plot about accidents of both that are dizzyingly crossed by love.

When Ralph Rackstraw, a humble foremast hand on the HMS Pinafore, falls in love with the captain's daughter Josephine, it emerges that her father has other plans for her: to marry her off to Sir Joseph Porter, the Cabinet Minister who is ruler of the Queen's navy, des...

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Latest User Review

62.255.32.15) - 8 August 2005:

What is it with 'critics'! Are they 'not allowed' to enjoy productions. Most of the press reviews were less than enthusiastic aboutthe enlargement of the Dick Deadeye part and to dyed in the wool savoyards it was uneccessary but to people coming to Pinafore for the first time and particularly to younger audience members (I took my 6 year old son who thoroughly enjoyed himself)it made it so much more accessible. The set was wonderful, the musical direction excellent and the casting exemplary. The direction in this most magical of theatres was superb and with sound that meant that every word could be heard I urge you to go and see this show - you will not be dissappointed....

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