The Pirates Of Penzance
Wiltons Music Hall • 29 Oct - Sat 23 Nov
There are few times I find myself looking forward to visiting a venue just as much as seeing the production playing within it, but this was very much the case for tonights press night performance of Sasha Regan’s all male version of The Pirates Of Penzance, a classic comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan currently running at Wilton’s Music Hall. The faded splendour of this Grade II listed building in East London has only ever managed to enhance the productions I have had the good fortune to see there, most recently elevating Stuart Wood’s Musical ‘Frank’s Closet’, (also directed by Sasha Regan), to new and unexpected heights after it’s transfer from the Union Theatre, the original production greatly benefitting from the amplification of its own music hall charm by dint of this atmospheric location.
It’s an effect that I assume isn’t lost on Regan herself as she has now directed a number of Gilbert and Sullivan operas at Wilton’s, her all-male version of H.M.S. Pinafore having previously received a 5 star review from us back in March 2022, and although I missed her 2023 production of the Mikado, such a strong track-record meant I was more than hopeful that this latest reworking of a theatrical classic was going to be an equally enjoyable experience.
Things certainly got off to a good start as fourteen of the seventeen strong cast leapt onto the stage as the titular Pirates of Penzance. Led by the Pirate King, (Tom Newland making a very impressive professional debut), the pirates open shirts fill the stage with a sea of hairy chests and six-packs! (I can’t imagine why Jack The Lad gets invited to such productions!) An all-male cast this most definitely was… except, as such, a number of these actors would soon be seen reappearing in the more traditionally played female roles, eventually leaving four of these roguish pirates transformed (kind of) into four prim and proper sisters Edith, (Kiran Kaman), Kate, (Thomas Alsop), Isabel, (Joe Henry), and Connie, (Aaron Dean).
Whilst it seems intentional that this visual transformation falls far short of being anything approaching ‘demure’, (the absence of wigs also distancing their transition from being considered drag), there is no such ambiguity when it comes to their voices, the ability of these cast members to extend there vocal range from bass and tenor to equally powerful soprano and falsetto impresses throughout, and whilst there is clearly a great deal of reverence and respect being paid to the original music at all times, Regan is still able to mine the rich seam of comedy that comes built in to such gender reversals, especially given this is ultimately a love story between Frederick (Cameron McAllister) and Mabel (Luke Garner-Greene) who, along with the more pantomime-esque Robert Wilkes as Ruth, (described comically here as “The remains of a fine woman”), are the only two actors to present solely as female characters throughout, and whilst it’s true that proceedings do get incredibly camp at times, what unfolds remains an unequivocally entertaining celebration of this Gilbert and Sullivan evergreen, rather than a parody of it.
And so it is that we find Mabel, who is the fifth daughter of Major-General Stanley, (“The very model of a modern Major-General”… yes… it’s that Gilbert and Sullivan opera!), shocked to discover her newly arranged wedding plans will have to be delayed given how Frederick, being born during a leap year, must remain in the pirates service until his 21st birthday which, as fate would have it, remains another 63 years away! Whilst it seems somewhat churlish for me to be worried about leaking any spoilers beyond this point, given this comic opera was first performed in 1879, there were definitely those in the audience for who this would have been their first time seeing it, and so I will refrain from giving the end away. What I can say is that alongside the impressive cast and Sasha Regan’s solid direction, this imaginative staging also owes much to the music, movement and stage directors, all of who’s contributions are equally noteworthy for what they bring to the overall production. From the opera’s opening overture right through to the casts final bow, Giannis Giannopoulos’s piano playing is faultless, as is Lizzi Gee’s inventive choreography which always places the cast perfectly across the stage, (and, on occasion, around the auditorium), leaving this audience member constantly scanning across the stage for fear of missing a single moment of the delicious detail that filled many of tonights performances.
Whilst I confess to having never seen any of the past, more traditional productions, Regan’s imaginative casting and equally imaginative staging makes this, and her H.M.S. Pinafore before it, the perfect introduction to the work of Gilbert and Sullivan, and I defy anyone to leave the theatre having not laughed their way through this thoroughly entertaining reinvention.
★★★★★
review: Simon J. Webb
photography: Mark Senior