WHY stage an all-male Pinafore? Why not?
Sasha Regan has done this to Gilbert & Sullivan before – with The Pirates Of Penzance – and enjoyed some success. When you can persuade half your ensemble of 16 to sing falsetto, you have a four-part choir, even if some of the couplings in the story require suspension of disbelief.
No, the problems with this production have little to do with gender. Ryan Dawson Laight’s set consists of three pairs of bunk beds and five black tin boxes. The "costumes" are mostly what you find in any modern gym, with the odd neckerchief for the "ladies" and a few pieces of material in their hair. Otherwise, apart from one tiny (almost invisible) model of a liner, and a rope intermittently held up to suggest to suggest the ship’s side, there is not a hint of the sea or the navy. In a maritime story, that is unforgivable.
James Waud's Deadeye Dick and the girls in HMS Pinafore. Picture: Francis Loney
This show is piano-accompanied. Although musical director Richard Bates deserves a medal for his keyboard skills, he is allotted a tin can of a piano, but there is still good fun to be had. Inevitably the mild cross-dressing, not to mention the mincing gestures, provoke some early titters, and speak of an attempt to parody the Savoy operas themselves (which are already parodies). But there are some good, trained voices on display and – hurrah – they are not amplified.
Neil Moors sports a more than useful baritone as Captain Corcoran. Ben Irish shows a flexible countertenor as Josephine, as does David Mckechnie’s credible Buttercup. Michael Burden should resist camping up his Sir Joseph Porter. Tom Senior’s Ralph Rackstraw has potential, and there are colourful cameos from James Waud as Dick Deadeye and Richard Russell Edwards as Hebe.
Lizzi Gee’s sparse choreography is not always cleanly executed and she includes no proper hornpipe. This Pinafore has musical compensations, but never gets out of dry dock. Get nautical, guys!
Sasha Regan’s All Male HMS Pinafore; Grand Opera House, York, tonight at 7.30pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here