Not so much a fearsome man-o’-war, this HMS Pinafore was more a tea clipper with a crew of jolly tars that could have come straight from the long-running radio series ‘The Navy Lark’. Awash with innuendo, Cal McCrystal’s staging of Gilbert and Sullivan’s nautical operetta (a revival of his 2021 production) is packed with comic mischief, both physical and spoken, the latter owing much to added dialogue with all the elements of panto. And thanks to Lizzie Gee’s energetic choreography, a chorus of sailors produce some fancy footwork all done with parade ground discipline. If the twirling neckerchiefs evoked Morris dancing, the well-timed routines could easily have graced the floor of Strictly.
That said, this Pinafore is a slow burn, only really taking off in Act 2 where its accumulating drama finds more focus and is launched by a visually arresting hornpipe. There are clever anagrams on the name Pinafore decorating the ship’s stern, while a Boris Johnson look-a-like flies across the stage on a zipwire during the singing of ‘For He Is an Englishman’. TV presenter Mel Giedroyc, doubles as Cabin Boy and Aunt Melanie, takes every opportunity to impose herself with witty one liners, and draws our eye with amusing pratfalls, all to hilarious effect. There’s no shortage of risqué humour either with “let me take you up the poop deck” and a mincing sailor declaring he’s just finished off “Three Men in a Boat”. And then there’s the school-boy humour of Neal Davies’s pompous Sir Joseph Porter, First Lord of the Admiralty, whose ‘love levels rank’ creates titillation when every R becomes a W. (The character is based on W.H. Smith – of high street fame – who was appointed Lord of the Fleet despite never leaving these shores.)
If the humour brings echoes of 1970’s sitcoms, the costumes are in every way traditional, with yards of dazzling crinoline (courtesy of Takis) that could light up a Christmas tree, and much attention given to detail of the ship’s fo’c’sle with its panelled cabins, elegant rigging, and scrubbed deck, all beautifully lit by Tim Mitchell. It all adds considerably to a waver-thin plot centred around an examination and skewering of the English class system in which Captain Corcoran’s attempts to marry his daughter Josephine off to Sir Joseph Porter are thwarted by her love for the lowly sailor Ralph Rackstraw with whom she plans to elope. But thanks to the intervention of Buttercup who confesses that the Captain and Ralph were orphans and muddled at birth, Ralph can now marry his sweetheart.
Overall, the singing is impressive, with standouts from the veteran G & S singer John Savournin as the dashing Captain Corcoran whose comedic timing and crisp diction are allied to perfectly timed facial expressions. He thoroughly enjoys himself, no more so than in the Act 2 Trio with Neal Davies and South Korean Henna Mun’s prettily sung Josephine whose aria bemoaning her conflicting loyalties between love and duty was an emotional high-water mark. Her humble swain, Ralph Rackstraw, is a clarion-voiced Thomas Atkins, though his ringing tenor feels at odds with his dreamy manner. Every inch the entitled Sir Joseph Porter, Neal Davies ramps up Act One with his patter song, later casting a beady eye on one of the sailors after his disappointment with Josephine. Adding a devilish touch is Trevor Eliot Bowes’s Dick Deadeye, while Marcus Farnsworth is a likeable Boatswain. Rhonda Browne as Buttercup improves after a somewhat leaden beginning and comes into her own when admitting her part in the mix up of the babies.
Keeping everything shipshape below deck is the orchestra of ENO under Matthew Kofi Waldren who, together, inject plenty of life into this Victorian score and somehow manage to ignore the mayhem above. Altogether, a fun-filled evening of lampooning and lusty singing – English National Opera at its best.
David Truslove
HMS Pinafore
Music: Arthur Sullivan
Libretto: W.S. Gilbert
Cast and Production Staff:
Sir Joseph Porter – Neal Davies; Captain Corcoran – John Savournin: Ralph Rackstraw – Thomas Atkins; Josephine – Henna Mun; Dick Deadeye – Trevor Eliot Bowes; Boatswain –Marcus Farnsworth; Mrs Cripps (Little Buttercup) – Rhonda Browne; Hebe – Bethan Langford; Cabin Boy & Aunt Melanie– Mel Giedroyc
Director – Cal McCrystal; Designer – Takis; Lighting Designer – Tim Mitchell; Revival Lighting – Adrian Plaut; Sound – Dominic Bilkey; Choreographer – Lizzie Gee, Associate Choreographer – Spencer Darlaston-Jones; Chorus and Orchestra of English National Opera; Conductor – Matthew Kofi Waldren
English National Opera, London Coliseum; 4 December 2025
Top image: The Cast of HMS Pinafore
All photos © Craig Fuller