ALL MALE Pirates of Penzance - Wiltons Music Hall

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Reviews from the Union Theatre July 2009:

TIME OUT
Why have the Union Theatre's all-male Gilbert and Sullivan revivals been so successful? On the evidence of this year's 'Pirates of Penzance', it's because the daftness of the endeavour is precisely in tune with the daftness of G&S themselves. Casting men as women, you don't sacrifice credibility, because there's none to begin with. What you attain is another level of play, another opportunity for the type of nonsense with which this operetta - with its cast of cissy pirates and red-faced buffoons of major-generals - already teems. Sasha Regan's production overcomes low resources with spirit, comic flair and with sheer force of numbers. Musical accompaniment is provided exclusively by Chris Mundy on the piano, but when the cast's seventeen voices pitch in, the sound doesn't seem at all unsupported. The cast are accordingly happy to play up their own ridiculousness - although there's skill as well as silliness in the characterisation of, say, General Stanley's simpering daughters. Yes, it's all errant whimsy with no connection to the real world. But this 'Pirates' also the finest piece of transvestite musical Victoriana you'll find on this side of the Spanish main.

THE STAGE - MARK SHENTON
The all-male Gilbert and Sullivan makeover is becoming an annual summer fixture at Southwark’s Union Theatre, and after previous successes with HMS Pinafore and The Mikado, the theatre’s artistic director Sasha Regan now brings a fresh, fast and funny approach to reinvigorate The Pirates of Penzance with a newly subversive satirical edge.

Frederic, seeking refuge from his plight as an unwilling pirate and even more unwilling suitor to Ruth, chances upon a group of maidens and asks them, “Is there not one maiden here/ Whose homely face and bad complexion/ Have caused all hope to disappear/ Of ever winning man’s affection?/ To such an one, if such there be,/ I swear by Heaven’s arch above you, / If you will cast your eyes on me,/ However plain you be - I’ll love you!”

He has plenty to choose from in the homely, plain faces department, since all the maidens, of course, are being played by men. But the clever approach of Regan’s production is that, although fine falsetto voices are adopted for the singing, there is no attempt to otherwise disguise their gender - no dodgy wigs or chest waxes are on offer here.

But neither is it sent up. There is no sly, additional winking at the material, either, but instead it allows the serious wit and playfulness that is already embodied within it to shine through fresh eyes. The accomplished youthful cast of 17 give it their all - Samuel J Holmes’ stern, striking Ruth is charmingly challenged by the more simpering Mabel of Adam Ellis for the affections of Russell Whitehead’s Frederic, while Alan Winner brings the right dash and attack to the Pirate King.

WHATSONSTAGE.COM - MICHAEL COVENEY
The sub-title of Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1879 comic opera is “the slave of duty” and even the most straight-laced of productions will burst its stays of sentimentality in this most wonderfully melodic and funniest of musicals.

Ever since Kevin Kline led the rocked-up Pirates at the Public Theater in New York, there have been “new look” versions such as Chris Monks’ successful update and re-setting – in the world of Baywatch and Reservoir Dogs – at the Orange Tree a couple of years ago.

Sasha Regan’s pocket production is a total delight with an all-male cast that retains a “period” feel, stunningly well costumed by Sophie Mosberger in simple white linens and laces, bandannas and long johns, mercifully no wigs, and that dances like Isadora Duncan acolytes as the Major General’s daughters in Lizzi Gee’s brilliantly resourceful choreography.

As the pirates, led by Alan Winner’s handsome, furry-chested Pirate King, they strike hilarious, unthreatening poses that belie their true status as noblemen who have “gone wrong,” and as the coppers on the beat (“Tarantara, tarantara”) they sport their twirly moustaches on thin sticks.

As with other musicals at this address, the joy of the experience is having a great score delivered right in your lap from the naked unadorned voices of the actors, who are expertly accompanied on piano by Chris Mundy. And they don’t make the mistake, either, of hamming, or indeed camping, it up.

Well, hardly ever. This is a very funny show, but it’s not a bunch of queens in drag “having a go” at a musical. Everyone is superbly drilled and, apart from one Isadora who perhaps flashes his eyes a little too intensely, they are all alert to the irresistible flow of the music and their own character studies on the sidelines. It’s one of the best G&S productions I’ve ever seen.

No simpering, either, in the lead roles, where Russell Whitehead is a beautifully voiced tenor Frederic, Samuel J Holmes his adoring nurse Ruth only teetering on the edge of dowdiness, Fred Broom a splendidly rubicund Major General and Adam Ellis a slyly sweet-natured, doe-eyed and miraculously falsetto Mabel. A policeman’s lot may not be a happy one, but a Union audience’s most certainly is.