Theatre review: The Pirates of Penzance

Published on Wednesday 11 November 2009 18:06

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE *** THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW

DOES The Pirates of Penzance really need extra comic punch? This slick Carl Rosa production of the Gilbert and Sullivan masterwork has been sailing the seas of topsy-turvydom for three years and the producers have decided to pantomime up the Sergeant of Police's role, first with Jo Brand and now with Karen Dunbar. Traditionalists may carp that Dunbar's singing voice isn't up to the task, and it isn't, but as she dismissively interjects, "this is Gilbert and Sullivan, not Tosca". True, but it's not Aladdin either and I'd have patiently waited till Christmas to catch her Widow Twankey.

The comic's spiky patter is well received but her playing to the gallery drags upon the production's otherwise catlike tread. It's all very well for her "Polis" chorus to echo her exclamation of "tough titties", but the orchestra halts, jarringly silent, for her references to The X-Factor, football and Sighthill. This is a shame, because while parachuting in a star turn is a forgivable tactic for filling the stalls, Dunbar actually has the lightness of touch to fit capably into the well-drilled ensemble, for which Steven Page as the Pirate King and Beverley Klein as Ruth offer charismatic support for Lincoln Stone and the soaring soprano of Katy Batho as Frederic and Mabel. Alternately puffing his cheeks in pride and fear, the bufferish, blimpish Barry Clark is the very model of a modern Major General.