This fizzing revival production of Gilbert’s and Sullivan’s 1878 break-through operetta HMS Pinafore has the audience spellbound from the start. The unscripted (by G & S) prologue capitalises on the guest appearance by Mel Gierdoy of the Great British Bake off. Not that the audience needs to be wooed: it is onboard even before the show starts. Gilbert & Sullivan are as quintessentially British (should that be English?) as tea and crumpets. Maybe that is why their wonderfully melodious operettas have never quite travelled abroad as much as those by Strauss, Léhar, or Kálmán. The more the pity.
The staging of HMS Pinafore is luminous and sets the tone for a romp pitched to transcend its Victorian settings. A Morecambe and Wise exit routine, a Charles Hawtrey lookalike tar, a cheeky aside asking offstage cast whether they are heading for Manchester (you get it?), all underpin the self-conscious comedy of the piece. This is part of Cal McCrystal’s signature tune. At times his HMS Pinafore is quite openly Carry On G & S (with G & T?), and none the worse for it. It is a riot and thoroughly enjoyable for its cheeky liberties with a Victorian musical classic. The original Pinafore is already a satire: after all Sir Joseph Porter (he is the admiral in charge of the Queen’s fleet) is a clownish fraud. His only previous contact with ships prior to his appointment as the navy’s commander was as a (partner)-ship in a law firm: ‘That they took me into the partnership./ And that junior partnership, I ween, / Was the only ship that I ever had seen’. As always Gilbert’s lyrics and mad rhymes work their comic magic. They would have an audience in stitches and itches even without Sullivan’s huge gift for matching tunes.
The chorus and dance numbers are executed impeccably, and, as a bonus, include tap dancing freely grafted on to the original. John Savournin, reprising his 2021 performance, is superb as the Pinafore’s luckless captain, and is partnered brilliantly by Neal Davies as the buffoonish Sir Joseph. The young lovers are sung by Thomas Atkins (what a gorgeous, sweet tenor voice), and Henna Mun, a rising star of the ENO’s very own stable of young artists. Rhonda Browne’s Buttercup was beautifully done, with the wider cast, chorus, and ensemble more intimately woven into the production than may be customary. It works: there is ne’er a dull moment in this fast-moving, at times farcically brilliant, production. Not to mention the egregiously comic performance but Mel Giedroyc, scripted for her by the director; and herself: we shall await to see her in Tosca, as she hints we may (only an ENO Tosca is not scheduled and she is fibbing?).
The conducting by Matthew Kofi Waldren is sure-footed, as is McCrystal’s directing. HMS Pinafore, as composed in 1878, is a spoof, which is here hammed up but still gentle and relevant. After all, incompetent buffoons in public office will always be with us, and true love has been finding a way since the dawn of time, preferably across boundaries and divides. It does in Pinafore too, as much as in Romeo and Juliet, although here it is class rather than a family feud. And what seems an insuperable obstacle is resolved in the end with a sleight-of-hand reaching back to the imaginative origins of comedy. The 1878 text surely laughs at, and with, the famous ‘Englishman’ song: ‘For he himself has said it,/ And it’s greatly to his credit,/ That he is an Englishman!’ It was used, superbly, and yes, ironically, in the film Chariots of Fire. It is a pity that the ENO production, unlike Chariots, does not seem quite to trust the audience at this point. In case we all start waving Union Flags in a patriotic sing-along with the fun of the rousing Englishman choric swell? A faded Union Jack (the end of empire?) descends on the stage during the song, and the cast duly displays non-Union flags from diverse places and backgrounds. Perhaps a bit of heavy-handed inclusive virtue-signalling in an otherwise flawless and thoroughly enjoyable production
HMS Pinafore premiered at the Opera Comique in London on 25 May 1878,
Music by Gilbert & Sullivan
Conductor: Matthew Kofi Waldren
Revival Director: Cal McCrystal
Cast includes: Neal Davis (Sir Joseph Porter), John Savournin (Captain Corcoran,) Henna Mun (Josephine), Thomas Atkins (Ralph Rackstraw), Rhonda Browne (Buttercup), Mel Giedroyc (guest star).
Until: 7 February 2026
Running time: 2 hrs 25 mins, with one interval.
Photo credit: Craig Fuller