The Pirates of Penzance is one of the most famous musicals of all time, with the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta charming many generations and often being a seminal part of one’s schooling experience as one of the more popular school musicals around. Last year’s production of the musical at Hayes Theatre Company was so well received that it has come back to play an extended season at the Foundry Theatre to conclude a statewide tour.

The play features five actors who perform every single role in this classic production, with Jay Laga’aia as the Pirate King, Brittanie Shipway as Ruth and Mabel and Maxwell Simon as Frederick alongside Sarah Murr and Jonathan Holmes. The production is heavily modernised with a lot of lyrical reworking and inventive staging, hence why this production is cheekily called The Pirates of Penzance or The Slave of Duty. The modernisation also brings the audience into the action as many are seated on the stage and called on for audience participation, with the production using every available part of the space in the Foundry Theatre.

The musical tells of a pirate who is destined to leave his band before falling in love with a woman who is the daughter of a Major-General who wants to bring the pirates to justice, leading to a hilarious and farcical series of events. The production leans heavily into the chaos of its five-actor format, with rapid costume changes, role switching and visible theatrical trickery all becoming part of the comedy. The show also cleverly pokes fun at the amateur and school theatre style productions of Gilbert and Sullivan that are familiar to so many, while updating some of the more dated elements of the original text.

The show is obviously somewhat of a relic and showing its age but this production did a fairly good job of modernising it. What this team did exceptionally well was make sure the production was extremely funny, with some absolutely fantastic moments of humour which really elevated the show. Brittanie Shipway was exceptional both vocally and acting wise and the whole cast did a very difficult job managing a fairly archaic text and the many different roles that they all had to perform. 

Jay Laga’aia had a fantastic presence on stage, really showing off his acting experience, while Maxwell Simon and Sarah Murr also had strong vocal moments. Jonathan Holmes was excellent performing “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General”, which was hilarious while also playing the piano for much of the show. The piano-led orchestration and rearrangements also gave the production a more playful and contemporary energy that helped make the material feel fresher for a modern audience. While the acting was strong, the vocals were a little bit iffy throughout the show, with some excellent moments but also some real struggles with pitch and with the range that the show demands at times. 

Additionally, what did tend to let the show down was the amount of technical difficulties on display on opening night. It meant that the cast often had to improvise and it did make the production feel a little bit amateurish at times, which should not really happen in an established venue like the Foundry. There were vocal issues with microphones not working at points and a few other hitches which took the audience out of the experience somewhat. While the show was clearly staged to mimic an amateur production, it did feel like sometimes this effect went a little too far, which made it unclear to the audience which parts were deliberate. With that said, the set design of Nick Fry and Adrien Stark was excellent while the larger than life costumes of Lily Mateljan were also superb. 

Overall, this was a solid performance of a classic musical, with the cast doing a great job modernising the old script and bringing interest to the show for a contemporary audience. While this show was not perfect, with a few vocal stumbles as well as music that just felt very dated and some technical hitches on opening night, this was a fun production which involved the audience well and is yet another success for Hayes Theatre Company.

Rating: ★★★★

The Pirates of Penzance plays at the Foundry Theatre until 7 June. For more information, click here. 

All photo credits: John MacRae