"A capacity for innocent enjoyment"

Pirates of Penzance

Sunday 13^th March 2010 at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Cast

Major General Stanley… Simon Butteriss

Samuel… Mark Evans

Mabel… Rebecca Bottone

Isabel… Rosie Bell

The Pirate King… Alistair McGowan

Frederic… David Curry

Edith… Abigail Iveson

Ruth… Alison Jiear

Sergeant of Police… Bruce Graham

Kate… Anna Lowe

The second of Alistair McGowan's Gilbert and Sullivan productions that I attended, I knew even less about Pirates of Penzance than I did the Mikado, other than the fact that it featured the Modern Major General's Song, which has nothing to do with a scary hippopotamus.

Well, what can I say about Pirates of Penzance? As with McGowan's Mikado, it was only partially staged, although the characters were wearing more appropriate costumes this time. Thankfully McGowan had a greater amount of stage time in this production, which he used to the fullest. The other standouts from a comic point of view were Bruce Graham as the apologetic Sergeant of Police and Simon Butteriss as a suitably doddery Major General. The scene in which the three parties hide out in Stanley's home was the highlight of the evening, during which time McGowan and his pirate band dropped from the stage and ran across one of the rows, rifling through one patrons Tesco bag as they went. As for the rest of the production, it was a thoroughly entertaining afternoon, with a team of talented actors showing us why, even in this age of musicals and reality shows, Gilbert and Sullivan need not be forgotten.

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Bruce Graham also played Pooh-Bah in McGowan's production of The Mikado.