HMS Pinafore
WS Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan
Directed by Keith Strachan
Tabard Theatre
Star rating: 5
This bijoux version of a dearly loved old favourites brims over with sparky, affectionate delight and original touches. I am not given to gushing but this really is an outstanding example of to how do G&S in 2026 and make it zing.
The cast of eight are all adept at costume changes and multi-roling. The numbers which Sullivan wrote as choruses become quartets, trios or at most, octets, and you can hear every harmony because there are some fine singers in this production – all using un-mic’d natural sound in the Tabard’s intimate space.
Famously (HMS Pinafore premiered at the Opera Comique in London on 25 May 1878 – almost exactly 148 years ago) it’s a satire on social class. “Love can level ranks and therefore …” Except, of course, that it doesn’t. And if Gilbert’s contrived happy ending is cross-generational and quasi-incestuous, then no one cares much either then or now.
Music is arranged (by Keith Strachan) for keys and flute and Annemarie Lewis Thomas does a fine, indefatigable job as MD. The most impressive work comes, however, from Marissa Landy. She plays flute (and piccolo for the hornpipe) continually moving from a seat beside piano in and out of the action where she sings beautifully as well as playing flute from the stage – which means she has to play most of it from memory. She is also a fine actor – as Hebe and ensemble roles – with an attractive, knowing way of catching the audience’s collective eye. It wasn’t until I read the programme on the way home that I realised that she also choreographed the production. Quite a star.
Gloria Acquaah-Harrison – lovely purple bottom notes – creates a larger than life, flirtatious Buttercup. And I don’t know whose idea it was to render the second verse of her big number as Southern Soul but it’s a stroke of genius as is doing “Over the Bright Blue Sea” with hilarious swing.
Among a strong cast the very talented Leopold Benedict finds quiet dignity in Captain Corcoran and Ryan Erikson Downey gives us a deliciously sly Dick Deadye. I liked the way Stevie Jennings-Adams adopts ultra-heightened RP (think Celia Jonson in Brief Encounter) for Josephine and even manages (impresssive soprano) to sing in it.
There’s a good joke with national flags when we get to “For he is an English man” and the occasional deptartures from Gilbert’s libretto are mostly well judged. Baby farming? “Yes, I looked after babies – for money!” declares defiant Acquaah-Harrison over her shoulder to the audience. It’s a bit sad, maybe that she can, apparently, no longer be described by Corcoran as a “plump and pleasing person.” The substituted adjective “plush” doesn’t quite cut it. But it’s a tiny gripe.
A must-see production, this excellent HMS Pinafore has just two weeks more to run. Steal a ticket if necessary.
