Gilbert & Sullivan Operetta Heads for West End

The Pirates of Penzance, one of the best-loved of all Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas, is to play a Christmas season at London’s Queen’s Theatre, running from December 18 to January 9.

The show, featuring such songs as ‘The Modern Major-General’, ‘Poor Wandering One’, ‘I am a Pirate King’ and ‘A Policeman’s Lot is Not a Happy One’ and a convoluted plot about pirates, policemen and the daughters of Major-General Stanley, was originally written in 1880. In recent years, it is perhaps best known for the lively updating it received in a production at Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre that subsequently transferred to Broadway (where it starred Rex Smith and Linda Rondstadt) and the West End (where it starred Tim Curry).

The celebrated D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, who are devoted to producing faithful recreations of the Savoy Operas of G&S, as they are popularly known, are making their first West End appearance in a decade with this production. Stuart Maunder directs this staging, with choreography by Lindsay Dolan and designs by Roger Kirk. The cast includes Richard Suart as Major-General Stanley, Jill Pert as Ruth, and Gareth Jones as The Sergeant of Police.

After the G&S season, Theatre de Complicite will revive their production of The Streets of Crocodiles, based on the stories of Bruno Schultz, originally seen at the Royal National Theatre in 1992 and subsequently seen at the Young Vic and Whitehall Theatres, for a season from the week commencing January 11. Then a new production of >Macbeth, with Rufus Sewell in the title role, will open at the Queen’s on March 3.

Mark Shenton