Pirates of Penzance

This could have been sub-titled ' A Night at the Museum'. First we were taken on a conducted tour to view the new exhibition of pirates following our souvenir museum programme. Once the night watchman had done his last round the pirates came to life and the show began. What a wonderful selection of pirates led by the Pirate King alias Captain Jack Sparrow and played by John Weightman. He almost stole the show with his uncanny likeness to Johnny Depp. They were a totally believable  pirate band and their singing was superb.

They were equally well matched with the beautiful ladies from the next door exhibition of 'Women through History' who soon made Frederick (Stephen Phillips) realise that his Nanny (Sarah Case) was perhaps not the 'fine figure of a woman' she had led him to believe. He soon finds his suffragette love (Laura Lister & Kate Rothero) one of the many daughters of the Major General (John Tattersall).

This clever idea made the production highly amusing and yet did not detract from the story and the lovely music. The singing was delightful from both principals and chorus with a sympathetic orchestra that never drowned them out.

In Act 2 we moved into the Curator's Office where the display of British Police' was being stored. Again we had the amusing spectacle of police from 1829 to the present day led by their sergeant (Richard Pascoe). Groupings in all the scenes had been cleverly thought out and there was always something to catch the eye.

The enthusiasm of the cast showed how much they were enjoying themselves and I know we in the audience were.

I came away with a lot of happy memories of this show and still think of Helen Sharman moon walking across the stage with the Bronte sisters!

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