Reviews

The Pirates of Penzance (May to July, 2013) Press quotes…

‘ONE OF THE MUST-SEE PRODUCTIONS OF THE YEAR. A VIBRANT, STYLISH AND HILARIOUS ROMP THROUGH ONE OF GILBERT & SULLIVAN’S FINEST SCORES ’ Newcastle Chronicle

‘IT’S FEEL-GOOD ALL THE WAY, WITH A GREAT SCORE, FABULOUS PERFORMANCES AND A UNIQUE COLLABORATION BETWEEN D’OYLY CARTE AND SCOTTISH OPERA’ New castle Chronicle

‘FANTASTIC VOYAGE, THIS IS ONE SHIP YOU SHOULD GET ON BOARD FOR’ Newcastle Chronicle

‘A RESOUNDING SUCCESS’ Bristol Evening Post

‘WHEN THE CHORUS COMES TOGETHER, WE ARE REMINDED THAT WE ARE WATCHING A COMPANY OF IMMENSELY TALENTED SINGERS’ Bristol Culture

‘THIS PRODUCTION NOT ONLY GIVES EVERY GLITZY WEST END MUSICAL A RUN FOR ITS MONEY, IT BEATS MOST OF THEM HANDS DOWN’ Chopsybaby.com, Bristol

‘GILBERT AND SULLIVAN’S SWASHBUCKLING CLASSIC IS STILL BRINGING THE HOUSE DOWN. PHENOMENAL’ Manchester Evening News

‘GILBERT AND SULLIVAN AT IT’S BEST – WITH PLENTY OF LAUGHS, WONDERFUL MUSIC AND FULL OF COLOUR AND FUN’
Manchester Evening News

‘**** WONDERFUL, INTELLIGENT POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT. ONE OF THE BEST NIGHT’S AT THE THEATRE I HAVE HAD ALL YEAR’ Whatsonstage Manchester

‘A WONDERFUL MIX OF WRY HUMOUR, WILDLY INVENTIVE PLOT AND TERRIFIC TUNES’ Oldham Evening Chronicle

‘LIVELY G & S UPDATE SAILS AWAY WITH THE PLAUDITS’ Oldham Evening Chronicle

‘UPLIFTING, CHARMING, JAM-PACKED WITH KNOCKOUT PERFORMANCES, STUNNING COSTUMES AND AN EYE-CATCHING PYTHONESQUE SET. A PERFECT PRODUCTION’ Manchestersfinest.com

‘THIS WAS A TERRIFIC, FUN ROMP THROUGH ONE OF GILBERT AND SULLIVAN’S BEST WORKS AND WENT DOWN A STORM. HIGHLY RECOMMMENDED’ Blackpool Gazette

‘THIS SLICK AND GORGEOUS-LOOKING CO-PRODUCTION BETWEEN SCOTTISH OPERA AND D’OYLY CARTE IS IN A DIFFERENT LEAGUE’ Daily Telegraph

‘***** SCOTTISH OPERA HAS ABSOLUTELY NAILED IT. INTELLIGENT, HIGH SPIRITED AND COMPLETELY ENGAGING’ Edinburgh Spotlight

‘**** A REAL AND RARE PLEASURE’ Scottish Daily Express

‘SWASHBUCKLING ROMANCE, WITTY, WORDY LYRICS. DON’T MISS IT’ Edinburgh Spotlight

‘**** GREAT ENTERTAINMENT. THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE LOOKS SET TO BE A SUCCESS’ The Herald

‘**** FRESH AND VITAL. A GREAT NIGHT’S ENTERTAINMENT’ The Scotsman

‘A HANDSOME PRODUCTION’ The Guardian

‘GLORIOUS SETS AND A FABULOUS CHORUS. FUN, ACCESSIBLE AND BRILLIANTLY CLEVER’ The Big Issue

‘SCOTTISH OPERA’S PIRATES SET SAIL FOR A FANTASTIC NIGHT OF ENTERTAINMENT Evening Express (Aberdeen)

‘RELENTLESS LAUGHS’ The Times

‘**** ALL ABOARD FOR SWASHBUCKLING FUN’ Inverness Courier

‘SCOTTISH OPERA’S ORCHESTRA IS ON TOP FORM’ Edinburgh Spotlight

‘A GREAT EVENING. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED’ edinburghguide.com

SCOTTISH OPERA’S NEW CO-PRODUCTION WITH D’OYLY CARTE IS FAITHFUL TO THE ORIGINAL YET STILL FUNNY AND RELEVANT’ East FM

‘A TREAT. THIS IS THE REAL DEAL. TWO HOURS OF FUN AND A HAPPY ENDING WITH SOME DARN GOOD SINGING ALONG THE WAY. East FM

‘I GUARANTEE YOU WILL BE WHISTLING A TUNE FROM ‘PIRATES’ FOR DAYS AFTER YOU HAVE SEEN IT!’ East FM

‘A G&S EVENING SHOULD BE PURE PLEASURE. THIS PRODUCTION DELIVERS THAT IN GENEROUS MEASURE’ Scottish Daily Express

‘THE WOMEN’S CHORUSES POSITIVELY GLISTENED.’ Opera Magazine

‘Visually stunning sets, a score played subtly and with expert skill, and a dramatic interpretation of the script high in hilarity, Scottish Opera’s Pirates set sail for a fantastic night of entertainment.’
Evening Express (Aberdeen)

‘In his nimble new production director Martin Lloyd-Evans has delivered exactly what he promised – a fresh and vital slant on an old chestnut. With the occasional nod to Monty Python, Lloyd-Evans pitches it neatly between the satirical and the absurd’ The Scotsman

‘There are many genuine laughs to be had, from the feckless pirates and comic-book Police, to a raft of solo performances that go well beyond G&S stereotypes, not least because they sing magnificently’ The Scotsman

‘This new Scottish Opera co-production with D’Oyly Carte revels in the Pirates of Penzance potential for slapstick and wit – while providing glorious sets and a fabulous chorus’ The Big Issue

‘WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING FOR SWASHBUCKLING ROMANCE, WITTY, WORDY LYRICS OR THE MUSIC OF AN UNDERRATED COMPOSER PERFORMED WITH VERVE AND ENTHUSIASM, SCOTTISH OPERA HAS IT ALL – DON’T MISS IT’ Edinburgh Spotlight
Company

‘THE ORCHESTRA BRINGS ZEST AND PRECISION TO SULLIVAN’S FRUITY THEMES, WHILE THE SINGING IS EXCELLENT’ Scottish Daily Express

‘THE INDEFATIGABLE RICHARD SUART IS STILL AT THE TOP OF HIS GAME IN THE MAJOR-GENERAL’S PATTER’ Financial Times

‘D’OYLY CARTE’S PATTER KING RICHARD SUART IS A SILVER-TONGUED MAJOR-GENERAL’ The Times

‘IT IS A DELIGHT TO HEAR THE INSANE PATTER OF RICHARD SUART AS MAJOR GENERAL STANLEY’ The Herald

‘STEVEN PAGE’S PIRATE KING HAS A DASH OF JACK SPARROW ABOUT HIM’ The Scotsman

‘STEPHANIE CORLEY’S MABEL IS TOP NOTCH’ The Times

‘STEPHANIE CORLEY AS MABEL IS BOTH HILARIOUS AND TOUCHING’ The Herald

‘NICHOLAS SHARRATT IS PERFECTLY CAST, HANDSOME, ARTICULATE AND SINGS BEAUTIFULLY’ The Guardian

‘STEPHANIE CORLEY’S MABEL NAILS THE HIGH NOTES WITH PLAYFUL APLOMB’ The Guardian

‘GRAEME BROADBENT GIVES A FINE TURN AS POLICE SERGEANT’ The Guardian

‘GRAEME BROADBENT’S LEERING SERGEANT OF POLICE COMES STRAIGHT FROM THE MINISTRY OF SILLY WALKS’ The Times

‘ROSIE ALDRIDGE SINGS RUTH WITH A GENTLE MATURITY’ The Scotsman

‘JAMIE VARTAN’S REFRESHING DESIGNS: CLEAN, SUGGESTIVE, CRISP’ The Scotsman

HMS Pinafore at the Savoy Theatre (December 2002)

“As Buttercup, Della Jones uses every part of her characterful voice, acting as a pantomimic fairy godmother with Welsh accent and rampant libido. As Sir Joseph Porter, Sam Kelly exhibits commendable clarity of diction, sung or spoken. Tom McVeigh, as Captain Corcoran, gamely affects the vulnerability of a public school twit (and) Josephine, played last night by Alison Rae Jones, offered a sense of fragility and fragrance. Feathers protruding from her hat, a bespectacled and adorable Sophie-Louise Dann plays the part of Hebe as an antiquated but lively, handbag wielding busybody.

There was fine work from the supporting chorus of sailors, aunts and cousins, and the playing from the small orchestra …was commendable in its crisp exactitude.”
Stephen Pettitt – Evening Standard

“This is neo-D’Oyly Carte, thank goodness, bright and streamlined, with the cobwebs blown away, but still true to the essential traditions. Both words and music sparkle as they should.

Sam Kelly’s portrayal of Sir Joseph Porter, Ruler of the Queen’s Navee, is masterly.
Della Jones is a well-built Buttercup with an engaging Welsh lilt, and Sophie-Louise Dann works wonders with the relatively small part of Hebe, Sir Joseph’s interfering cousin.”
Sunday Telegraph

“Gilbert’s satire on class distinctions and official pomposity is as timely and as witty as ever, while Sullivan’s melodies remain maddeningly infectious. Martin Duncan’s production gets the right balance between text and music with razor sharp diction from a largely opera trained cast.

Tom McVeigh, his posture stiff with upper-crust hauteur, is a cool and supercilious Captain Corcoran, Gareth Jones, a delightful curmudgeonly Dick Deadeye and Sophie Louise Dann amusingly irritating as myopic, interfering spinster Hebe.

The fun extends to Tim Hatley’s bold, streamlined art deco sets, which resemble a huge blow-up of a poster for Cunard’s White Star line. Setting off Hatley’s designs to perfection are the terrifically camp male chorus of sailors, twinkling in skimpy singlets and fetching black boots, and the simpering female chorus of ‘sisters, cousins and aunts’.”
Jason Best – The Stage

“Martin Duncan’s production, with a delightful airy design of the Pinafore’s quarterdeck by Tim Hatley, has exactly the freshness, charm and cheek the show demands. What a pleasure it is, too, to hear the company singing so beautifully and so audibly without the overamplification that blights so many musicals today. The pit band, under the baton of John Owen Edwards, is also first-rate.

Della Jones is a delight as Buttercup, while Alison Rae Jones and Joseph Shovelton gleefully send up the conventions of romantic melodrama as the young lovers.

It’s an exceptionally winning show, so give three cheers and one cheer more for this splendid staging of the Pinafore.”
Charles Spencer – The Telegraph

“Martin Duncan’s witty, bulgingly tongue-in-cheek production brings G&S fizzingly up to date without cheapening or vulgarizing the great Savoy Operas tradition.

The slickly choreographed chorus of toe-tapping tars and tottering cousins, sisters and aunts would grace any West End show. Treat yourself.”
David Gillard – The Daily Mail

“This production) lights up the December sky with gaiety and good tunes.

Joseph Shovelton fills the young hero’s shoes so crisply and mellifluously that you forget the difficulties of his task.

You’re guaranteed a good time.”
Geoff Brown – The Times

Mikado at the Savoy Theatre (July 2002)

“Ian Judge’s production certainly gets it right, the laughs (and there are lots) coming mainly from the silliness of the English japing at being Japanese.”
David Gillard – The Daily Mail

“In one sense the joke of The Mikado has today been turned on its head: instead of an English passion for all things Japanese, there is now a Japanese fashion for all things English, and sure enough this production contains its fair share of World Cup jokes. But the piece survives as much through Sullivan’s irresistible melodies as Gilbert’s book and, thanks to John Owen Edwards’ lively musical direction, Self’s Katisha and a notably well-sung Yum-Yum from Jacqueline Varsey, this production sends you away a much happier being.”
Michael Billington – The Guardian

“Top marks go to the strong young voices of the D’Oyly Carte chorus as well as to the choreography of Lyn Jolly, who creates impressive human stage-pictures on the minimal, versatile sets of Tm Goodchild. Gareth Jones’s baritone and Royce Mill’s comic timing excel, and gifted tenor Joseph Shovelton is damn near perfect as Nanki-Poo.”
Lisa Garham – Metro (London)

“The show is full of inventive wit – just look at the chorus of very English Japanese gentlemen tucking into their sushi – and as one inured to the over-amplification of West End musical, it is a rare pleasure to experience this wonderfully melodic operetta without the singers, or the excellent pit band, being amped up.”
Charles Spencer – The Daily Telegraph

“Watching John La Bouchardière’s revival of Ian Judge’s show, it’s hard to remember that 20 years ago the old D’Oyly Carte troupe was dying on its feet. Not any more. Even the chorus is virile-voiced and moves niftily in the smallest spaces.”

Geoff Brown – The Times

“Publicity has focused on comedian Jasper Carrott as Ko-Ko, the new Lord High Executioner. Initially subdued, he gets his first belly laugh adding a certain England goalkeeper to his list and tunefully comes into his own with the Titwillow solo, before sharing the triumph of a duet with Susannah Self’s gorgeous Katasha.”
John Thaxter – The Stage