hms pinafore

Just got back from HMS Pinafore. It isn't my favorite of the G&S plays, but I've seen some productions of it that I quite liked. This was not one of them. I hate to say that, since I've been going to Lamplighters productions since I was 11, and they're frequently brilliant -- they actually won the International Gilbert & Sullivan festival a couple of years back, which is a mindblowing accomplishment for an American company (and they drew *Princess Ida*, no less!).

This, however, was one of the most drastically uneven productions of any play I've ever seen. If you looked up 'uneven' in the dictionary, there would be a picture of this performance.

To start from the top, Josephine[1] was simply fantastic: shivery-gorgeous voice, awesome presence, never dropped a word. Sir Joseph was maaaaaybe a bit overboard -- sort of a cross between Henry Higgins and Charles Nelson Riley on the high seas -- but very funny. Dick Deadeye I also liked, though he wasn't given nearly enough to do. They played it for irony, making him handsome, but it wasn't played hard enough, and he got no ending to speak of.

Buttercup and Capt. Corcoran were both good, though both could have stood to project a bit more. He was performing more like a movie actor than a stage actor, and she, despite a sweet voice, was simply too quiet. The chorus was all right, though the tenors were a great deal stronger than the baritones, which disbalanced all the men's choral sections somewhat. The Bosun did a good enough job, but I recently saw him in a humorous piece playing the part of George W. Bush, wherein his resemblance was uncanny, so that was a bit distracting.

And arriving at the bottom of the barrel, we have Ralph, who, though he could act well enough while speaking, couldn't hit a sweet note to save his life. "I can hum a little, your honour" indeed! This was basically devastating to the performance, because half the first act depends on his singing ability, and the second act on our affection for the character, without which, Josephine's "The hours creep on apace" (which should be the emotional high point) is severely undermined. The actress was pitch-perfect-wonderful, but it was hard not to be distracted by thinking, "Pick Joseph -- at least he can sing!"

There's a special agony to seeing a bad singer in a play you know very well. You know exactly when all the difficult passages and high notes are coming, and you're constantly gripping your armrests wondering how badly he's going to butcher this one.

The staging was likewise uneven. Sometimes it was clever and worked, sometimes it was sloppy and didn't. This production is all OVER the place. It's ultimately a thumbs-down for me: Almost saved by a few brilliant performances, but not quite.

Now, who wants to write me some Joseph Porter/Dick Deadeye? In lyric form, if you please.

[1] Unfortunately, I lost my program, so I don't have the names of the actors. I'll try to find the name of the actress who played Josephine, though -- she'd be worth seeing in anything.

*

[EDIT: In other musical slash news, the maintainer of yumrecs wants to know if she's the only one who slashes West Side Story. Is she?]

hms pinafore

Just got back from HMS Pinafore. It isn't my favorite of the G&S plays, but I've seen some productions of it that I quite liked. This was not one of them. I hate to say that, since I've been going to Lamplighters productions since I was 11, and they're frequently brilliant -- they actually won the International Gilbert & Sullivan festival a couple of years back, which is a mindblowing accomplishment for an American company (and they drew *Princess Ida*, no less!).

This, however, was one of the most drastically uneven productions of any play I've ever seen. If you looked up 'uneven' in the dictionary, there would be a picture of this performance.

To start from the top, Josephine[1] was simply fantastic: shivery-gorgeous voice, awesome presence, never dropped a word. Sir Joseph was maaaaaybe a bit overboard -- sort of a cross between Henry Higgins and Charles Nelson Riley on the high seas -- but very funny. Dick Deadeye I also liked, though he wasn't given nearly enough to do. They played it for irony, making him handsome, but it wasn't played hard enough, and he got no ending to speak of.

Buttercup and Capt. Corcoran were both good, though both could have stood to project a bit more. He was performing more like a movie actor than a stage actor, and she, despite a sweet voice, was simply too quiet. The chorus was all right, though the tenors were a great deal stronger than the baritones, which disbalanced all the men's choral sections somewhat. The Bosun did a good enough job, but I recently saw him in a humorous piece playing the part of George W. Bush, wherein his resemblance was uncanny, so that was a bit distracting.

And arriving at the bottom of the barrel, we have Ralph, who, though he could act well enough while speaking, couldn't hit a sweet note to save his life. "I can hum a little, your honour" indeed! This was basically devastating to the performance, because half the first act depends on his singing ability, and the second act on our affection for the character, without which, Josephine's "The hours creep on apace" (which should be the emotional high point) is severely undermined. The actress was pitch-perfect-wonderful, but it was hard not to be distracted by thinking, "Pick Joseph -- at least he can sing!"

There's a special agony to seeing a bad singer in a play you know very well. You know exactly when all the difficult passages and high notes are coming, and you're constantly gripping your armrests wondering how badly he's going to butcher this one.

The staging was likewise uneven. Sometimes it was clever and worked, sometimes it was sloppy and didn't. This production is all OVER the place. It's ultimately a thumbs-down for me: Almost saved by a few brilliant performances, but not quite.

Now, who wants to write me some Joseph Porter/Dick Deadeye? In lyric form, if you please.

[1] Unfortunately, I lost my program, so I don't have the names of the actors. I'll try to find the name of the actress who played Josephine, though -- she'd be worth seeing in anything.

*

[EDIT: In other musical slash news, the maintainer of yumrecs wants to know if she's the only one who slashes West Side Story. Is she?]