The Pirates of Penzance

The satire which infused all Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas has long since been forgotten. Who was the model for the Modern Major – General (who knew nothing about the military) that they lampooned? Audiences in the 1880s certainly knew and laughed, for G&S were astonishingly modern and daring for their time. But now the shows are no longer biting satire, merely absurd stories in which the expected is turned Topsy Turvy as WS Gilbert’s supersonic witty lyrics regale us like machine gun fire backed by Arthur Sullivan’s often mixed bag of music, ranging from exquisite to mundane. True, they poke fun at the establishment of the time, but often stories are resolved on the turning of a line which makes little sense. The wonder is that the shows are still greeted with such affection and have great longevity. Who doesn’t love a good G&S production?

Melbourne’s The Production Company gives us super productions of great modern musicals, and so the decision to stage Pirates as their final offering of the year must have raised some eyebrows. And, for me at least, this production, from Joe Papp’s Broadway version of 1981, was a mixed bag of scrumptious delights and mild disappointments. The set is the former. Designer Dale Ferguson gives us a fabulous English bandstand (from memory there is one in Penzance) with the band in traditional uniforms; a wonderful pirate ship brought on in pieces by the pirates; rostrums and steps, all part of the bandstand; the use of the choir stalls high on either side, and the ladders to the stage; entrances through the stalls, pirates tumbling down aisleways; trapdoors into the base of the band-stand through which the police disappear while still Tara tara-ing….just delicious. Add to that gorgeous costumes and excellent lighting; along with excellent work of Mathew Frank and Orchestra Victoria, and there are indeed choice sweetmeats to be had, not least in Andrew Hallsworth’s witty choreography. The major disappointment for me was in the voices. Though this is more Broadway than Savoy Theatre, I was acutely aware of too many music theatre voices, and not enough true operatic tone, and that’s especially true in the majority of female voices.

The cast is full of favourite performers, all of whom impress. The idefatigable Wayne Scott Kermond dazzled as Major- General Stanley; Adam Murphy is the perfect Pirate King (he understands the text and gives us a pirate king who never degenerates into Burlesque); and Gareth Keegan (Frederic) and Claire Lyon (Mabel) are the perfect ingenues… their singing is superb and clearly both are also dancers which adds another dimension. Keegan is the perfect young lead with a great sense of physical comedy timing (I couldn’t help but imagine him in the title role of L’il Abner – a rarely revived but charming musical). Lyon’s voice lacks some of the sweetness of Mabels of the past, and can border on shrillness in coloratura mode, but she makes perfect sense of a role which, in the writing, lacks real development. Their duets together provided the best music of the night, even if Director Dean Bryant did decide to load them with comic business and take no chances. Genevieve Lemon is an impressive Ruth and her diction is perfection, but she is not truly the right vocal tone for the role and that’s a pity. Despite this, her comic timing is marvellous, even when – physically – she is channeling Helena Bonham-Carter in the second act. It’s always a joy to see her on stage. Brent Hill clearly savours his role as the police sergeant but someone please get him a jockstrap to wear under those navy interlock shorts. It’s not a pretty sight.

The chorus of pirates provide some fine singing and characterisation and the use of VCA students with a variety of props in the choir stalls is inspired. However, much of Dean Bryant’s peripatetic direction seems to detract, rather than add, to the whole, and that’s the other disappointment. The parrot, for example, is a lovely idea but is too small to be more than a distraction as it flies from character to character. More focussed comic business might have come from a slightly larger parrot connected only to The Pirate King or Samuel (Troy Sussman) – and it wouldn’t hurt to have at least one song without any comic distraction, it would give us all a chance to catch our breath.

Despite the quibbles, this is another triumph for The Production Company, wonderfully colourful and joyful in the way that theatre is meant to be. Gilbert and Sullivan didn’t take themselves too seriously, and neither should we.

Coral Drouyn 

Images (from top) Gareth Geegan, Adam Murphy and The Pirates; Gareth Keegan with The Daughters; Brent Hill and The Police & Gareth Keegan; Genevieve Lemon, Adam Murphy and The Pirates. Photographer: Jeff Busby.