The Pirates of Penzance review – a modern, majorly fun staging that runs out of steam

The Guardian

20-02-2025

We are worlds away from the moment in which Gilbert and Sullivan wrote The Pirates of Penzance but this comic opera satirising social and class absurdities of Victorian England just won't quit. It's a favourite on amateur and professional stages, and all over our pop culture. Aaron Sorkin is a fan and its songs have been covered by the Minions. G&S have been referenced everywhere from The Simpsons to Star Trek to Mass Effect.
Australia has a long and affectionate relationship with The Pirates of Penzance in particular, tapping into its lively sense of social rebellion and twinkling humour with productions that seek to connect these ideas with new audiences. Now, the Hayes Theatre gets its turn. The show's director, Richard Carroll, has built a career on comic, lightly corrective and gently immersive updates of shows including Calamity Jane and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, so The Pirates of Penzance fits neatly into his body of work.
This tale, of the leader of a band of pirates who calls himself a king (since the monarchy does similar – but dirtier – work than his own); the romantic hero, Frederic, who falls in love with a woman above his social class and lacks critical thinking skills; and, of course, a 'modern' major general who knows so much about so many things (except the military), has plenty of juice left to squeeze.
Carroll's new adaptation (Victoria Falconer is the co-arranger and musical supervisor) reduces the sprawling cast to just five, each taking on major parts and then doubling, tripling or more to fill out the ensemble where required: Trevor Jones (Major General and music director), Jay Laga'aia (the pirate king), Brittanie Shipway (Ruth/Mabel), Maxwell Simon (Frederic) and Billie Palin (Isabel/Barry).
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The first act of this new production is fizzing and fun. Frederic's growing deference to a guidebook for heteronormative gentlemen plays up the absurdity in Gilbert and Sullivan's piece using a modern lens: a pirate's life, where the crew share chores, meals and feelings, far from societal constraints, looks so clearly like the better option from the outset (and suggests a journey for Frederic that might end in queer liberation).
It's also a brilliant showcase for Shipway, who is extraordinary as both Ruth, Frederic's former nurse turned 'piratical maid-of-all-work', and Mabel, the major general's daughter who falls for Frederic. Shipway is the production's north star: she sets the bar for, then maintains and elevates, the energy, tone and quality of the performances from the very good ensemble: everyone must rise to meet her brilliant sense of timing, remarkably supple voice and killer joke delivery. Carroll's adaptation delivers her little love notes: a standout staging of When Frederic Was a Little Lad, which transforms Ruth's origin story into a cabaret showstopper, and a delightfully flirty Poor Wand'ring One, in which Mabel declares her interest in Frederic. Carroll's a director and adapter who loves a leading lady, and Shipway is stellar.
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There are other highlights: the major general adores Sabrina Carpenter; Laga'aia gets a great fourth wall-breaking moment; Simon is wonderfully committed to Frederic's inner himbo; and there are frequent fun solutions to the lack of an ensemble (the police force are mostly hats on stands and the cast play instruments).
But, as we move into the second act, it's clear the first has made promises it just can't deliver. At one point, Frederic recites the fourth stanza of Walt Whitman's I Sing the Body Electric ('I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough … '), and, while it's a lovely reading, the production doesn't build itself enough sincerity to contain this earnestness; it feels out of place.
The immersive elements of the show – including handing props to audience members and asking them to play as pirates – are swiftly corralled as though the production is afraid of any kind of risk; when an audience member who is asked to voice agreement adds a comment, the cast ignores it and it feels against the spirit of the production's own offering. There are props, ideas and comic bits that are discarded as soon as they arrive – every one a little ding to the production's own interior comic rhythm and narrative logic. Ultimately, it feels as though the show runs out of steam well before it's over.
It's hard not to feel sympathetic about it: musicals might be the theatrical form in which it's hardest to stick the landing, especially when you're also trying to ensure that no one is giving away women like property (thankfully) and that the happy ending represents a more contemporary social rebellion. But that first act, all promise and new premise, is a ball, and the goodwill it engenders there – and the reliable dazzling presence of Shipway, the star of this show – makes a good case for sticking around after interval.
The Pirates of Penzance is on at Hayes Theatre, Sydney until 16 March, then Illawarra Performing Arts Centre 26-29 March and Canberra Theatre Centre 2-6 April