Pirates of Penzance

This ever popular G & S show went down well with the audience the evening I attended. The orchestra played the tuneful score very well and this added much to this production. There were plenty of interesting and amusing touches. The Pirates were sound and villainous, well done Pirates.

Tom Beck made a good Pirate King he sang well, but I would have liked him to have been a little more swashbuckling. Angela Dixon was an appropriately solid Ruth and she brought humour to the trios in Act 2. Anna Graves was a lovely Mabel, she has stage presence and good diction, her singing of ‘Poor Wandering One’ was beautiful whilst Nick Birbeck did full justice to the part of Frederic, I did wonder why he appeared to have lost his wig for Act 2, he did look a little out of character but possibly Mabel did a Delilah! Emma Barker, Emma Gibbard and Stephanie Wilson were very effective as the general’s daughters Edith, Kate and Isabel. I certainly enjoyed Nigel Kelly as Sergeant of Police, he had good timing and the policeman’s numbers were excellent.

There was a delightful ladies chorus of suitably eccentric and pretty maidens. What can I say about Major-General Stanley played by Simon Yaxley who endeared himself to the audience, he gave a witty and polished performance the audience were in stitches at times! His rendition of ‘The Model of a Modern Major General’ drew a well deserved round of applause, his superb diction added so much to his performance. There was some good singing from everyone, ‘Hail Poetry’ was a gem and I did like the royal appearance by Queen Victoria by kind permission of Madeline Campbell.

A very pleasant evening was spent with Staveley A.O.S and I also thought that the set was really good. Thank you.

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