REVIEWS REVIEWS
A super set in black and gold, reminiscent of the Café de Paris in its heyday, greets the eyes as you take your seat for Pinafore Swing. It would be nice to see more touring companies with stage design of this high standard, this piece of work by Sarah-Jane McClelland and lighting by Richard G. Jones is first rate. The tone is set for a refreshing piece of new work by John Doyle, who also directed, and is based on the operetta HMS Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan. This musical, in the strict sense of the word, with Sarah Travis rearranging Sullivan's music to the swing idiom and John Doyle adding to Gilbert's words, using the precise manners and diction of the times, brings this work right up to today's required taste to give us a piece based on a 1940's warship, called uninspiringly the P4. This show is pure fantasy as the British crew acquire an American sailor and a trio of girls called the Butterflies and merge into a swing orchestra used as a platform that allows them to live out their lives and loves.
This is a talented cast who can act, sing, dance and play musical instruments. It was nice to see real instruments played on stage without the aid of microphones and amplifiers, and the cast left you amazed at the slick change of player on the piano and the ease with which the cast changed from one instrument to another. The singing and playing just got better as the story gained momentum. The people responsible for all this were Kieran Buckeridge as Joe the American sailor, Gemma Page as Jenny the Wren, Steve Simmonds as Jim the aristocrat officer, Ben Tolley as Jack the British sailor, Stephan Watts as the captain, with Butterflies Kerry James as Hee Hee, Nina Lucking as Bee Bee and Claire Storey as Dee Dee. They performed numerous musical numbers such as One, Two, Three, Four, The King's Navy and the Lindy Hop to the delight of the audience as they worked their way through the story.
The show outshone its programme and left the audience wanting more as the applause showed when the cast took their bows. It made this a magical evening at the theatre and showed what can be done with a lot of work and careful thought. Great. © BA
“Pinafore Swing” is at York from the 19th to the 23rd October, 2004 and then touring. This is a No Smoking theatre. Council car parking charge £2.60 from 7pm.
