REVIEW: Eastbourne G&S offers a voyage of musical joy

All aboard, all aboard: the good ship HMS Pinafore is in port this week – docking at the Royal Hippodrome Theatre with a full Eastbourne Gilbert and Sullivan cast and crew. And it’s a voyage of musical joy.

The operetta dates from 1878 – remarkably, almost a century and a half – but G&S has the endless capacity for re-inventing itself. Right now, in London’s West End, an all-male Pirates of Penzance is rocking audiences nightly. Across the world in the past, there have been Zen Mikado productions in Japan, and Gondoliers played on real gondolas in Venice.

But this time, Eastbourne G&S are happy to play it relatively straight. The setting is squarely where it belongs, in Portsmouth Docks, but the period is 1920s, and the show is superbly, elegantly dressed to suit: credit to Helen Morbey and Rowan Stanfield on wardrobe.

We are welcomed with the sight of Ant Miller’s splendidly imposing set design: the prow of a great ship, and above it the huge mast with its cross-rigs spread wide.

Tony Biggin expertly directs a full ten-piece orchestra, filled with experience, and the company stroll genially to and fro on stage as the overture plays – a so much better introduction to a show than those old days when we used to sit listening patiently, and staring at a big velvet curtain!

Out front on stage, the company can call on formidable experience from a cast who know their Gilbert and Sullivan: not just knowing the notes or rattling off the dialogue, but genuinely understanding this unique genre of theatre.

The plots may be preposterous, the characters eccentric, the humour really rather British. But the end product – this year as every year – is a couple of hours of delight. Under the assured eye of director Wendy Dovey, this production ripples with fun, and it glows with a warm affection for the original.

Every lead actor is comfortable in role: central to the hierarchy – which matters mightily in the plot – Paul Eccles is an imperious Sir Joseph Porter KCB, who actually carries a little less authority than he thinks, but has all exactly the right mannerisms right down to the last raised eyebrow. Benjamin Craven’s Captain Corcoran leads his “gallant crew” with genial command.

The men themselves, splendidly uniformed, sing with gusto and good cheer, with lovely cameos from Michael Bale as a Dick Deadeye who would love to be a proper villain but is just too endearing, and from Boatswain Paul Debreczeny who is utterly Mr Dependable – no surprise, really, recalling one of his parallel lives as a Mr Unflappable stage manager at the Devonshire Park….

Every G&S opera needs a dashing hero, of course, and Adrian Samuel’s Ralph Rackstraw is terrific: an irrestistible catch for any admiring wench.

Ah yes, the ladies – actually a couple of notches up the social scale from mere common wenches. Margot Miller’s Buttercup is charmingly dotty and has immediate rapport with the audience, and Tiffany Lynn is a radiantly cheerful Marina.

The two female leads are outstanding in both their acting and their vocals. Clare Daly brings elegance and a fabulous, genuinely operatic voice to the Cousin Hebe role. Rowan Stanfield, who has taken many female leads for the company, absolutely lives and breathes the Josephine role, rising from bashful to breathtaking as she absolutely nails her final aria. A century and a half, did we say? Sullivan’s wonderful music is as fresh as tomorrow.

All the chorus work – male and female – is lively, animated, and has that sense of glee which characterises a company who genuinely are enjoying themselves. It’s accomplished and infectious: your ticket could quite safely carry a money-back guarantee, if you don’t leave the auditorium with a broad smile and a warm glow. The take-up would be nil!

But hold on, you can’t go yet, for there is a denouement. It’s all a bit complicated, but heck, this is Gilbert and Sullivan. WS Gilbert can never resist a twist, a mistaken identity, or accident of birth; sometimes all three. But as another patter song in a different G&S opera assures – “it really doesn’t matter!”

Kevin Anderson