HMS Pinafore

One of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most beloved works, HMS Pinafore tells a classic tale of a forbidden love, and the troubles that must be overcome before our hero and heroine can be together. The ever-popular production takes place aboard the Royal Navy ship HMS Pinafore, where the captain's daughter, Josephine, is in love with a lower-class sailor, Ralph Rackstraw, although her father intends her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty.

Worcester G&S Society’s version gave us a rousing opening night start to this production with ‘We sail the Ocean Blue’ and Christine Davies quickly established herself as a flamboyant ‘Mrs Cripps’ with ‘I’m called Little Buttercup’. We soon meet ‘Ralph’ (Samuel Taunton) who too gave a strong performance throughout, establishing himself with ‘The Nightingale sighed’ with great expression. Paul Ellis had good presence as ‘Captain Corcoran’ singing a well performed ‘My Gallant Crew’ supported by a well drilled men’s chorus.

Rebecca Fearnley gave a powerfully sung performance as ’Josephine’ and the ladies chorus were beautifully dressed and matched the bright performance of the principals. Colin Wilks gave ‘Sir Joseph Porter’ exactly the right treatment with ‘When I was a Lad’ providing some well-timed humour throughout the production, as did John Clay with rich tones whilst portraying ‘Dick Deadeye’.

There was some lovely un-accompanied singing at the start of ‘A British Tar’ and in this number and throughout, great support was provided by Cameron Simpson (‘Boatswain’) and Tim Goodall (‘Carpenter’). Never far from ‘Sir Joseph’, ‘Cousin Hebe’ played by Meriel Ford gave a bright performance. There was a lovely scene between ‘Ralph’ and ‘Josephine’ when you felt the anguish between them knowing they were from different stations in life.

In Act 2 the action continued at the same pace and a highlight was the trio ‘Never Mind the why and wherefore‘ with ‘Josephine’, ‘Sir Joseph’ and ‘Captain Corcoran’, which was a delight.

On a general note, I found that two pianos were quite sufficient and for me enabled words to be heard perhaps better than I have before. A fixed set enabled the scenes to flow well and director Bev Butler and all involved should be pleased with the result.

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