REVIEW: HMS Pinafore at The Tabard Theatre until 6 June

‘a winning formula’ ★★★★

The best thing in the Tabard’s splendidly joyful HMS Pinafore is the flautist. One of an orchestra of just two, the delightful, diminutive Marissa Landy is also an accomplished dancer, actor, singer and comedian, and she lifts the spirits every time she leaves her seat and comes onto the stage, with or without her flute. And she is also, apparently, responsible for the fast and funny choreography.

But I’m sure that some of the more extravagant moves made by Gloria Acquaah-Benedict came from the actor herself. This is not the shy, demure Little Buttercup normally presented in this opera. Demure she isn’t. She is loud, robust, full-throated and magnificent, and she owns the stage from the moment she opens her mouth to sing I’m Called Little Buttercup. For me, she’s the star of the show.

This is the Tabard’s second Gilbert and Sullivan after its successful Mikado last year, again directed by Keith Strachan with musical director Annemarie Lewis Thomas, and they have found a winning formula. G&S operas were written for the big stage and the huge orchestra, but Strachan and Thomas have shown again how well it works in small spaces, with just nine people on stage including the musicians. You can hear Gilbert’s witty words better, for one thing.

John Griffiths played the Mikado in that production last year, and he returns this year as a wonderfully snobbish and un-seamanlike naval chief Sir Joseph Porter, whom you can easily believe followed his own injunction: “Stick close to your desks, and never go to sea, And you all may be rulers of the Queen’s Navee.”

Leopold Benedict as Captain Corcoran is also as unlike a sailor as possible. He’s all bespectacled middle class delicacy and propriety, staying just the right side of effete.

Because of the financial constraints of theatre in small spaces, Griffiths and Acquaah-Benedict both have to double – Griffiths as a seaman, and Acquaah-Benedict as one of Sir Joseph’s sisters, cousins and aunts - which is a pity, as it detracts slightly from the strong characters they create.

The songs are al belted out with tuneful abandon. Highlights for me, apart from I’m Called Little Buttercup, were Kind Captain I Have Important Information, which turned into a rollicking duet between Captain Corcoran and Ralph Rackstraw (Ryan Erikson Downey), and Griffiths’ rendering of the great patter song, When I Was a Lad.

But we also had fun with the cod patriotism of He Is An Englishman, which the audience were invited to sing along with the cast: “For in Spite of All Temptations/ To Belong to Other Nations/ He remains an Englishman.” We needed little encouragement, though personally I declined the invitation to wave a Union Jack while I sang.

HMS Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan

The Tabard Theatre 6 May – 6 June

BOX OFFICE https://tabard.org.uk/whats-on/hms-pinafore/

photographer Matt Hunter

CAST

Little Buttercup|Gloria Acquaah-Harrison

Captain Corcoran| Leopold Benedict

Dick Deadeye|Ryan Erikson Downey 

Sir Joseph Porter| John Griffiths 

Josephine| Stevie Jennings-Adams 

Cousin Hebe/Flautist|Marissa Landy

Ralph Rackstraw| Finan McKinney 

Bosun  Kieran Wynne 

Musical Director |Annemarie Lewis Thomas