Theatre Trip: HMS Pinafore

 H.M.S. PINAFORE

Coliseum Theatre
Date: 30 October (Saturday), 7:30pm
Seats: Upper Circle A 21-22

(Seen with Richard!)

We were excited to come back to the Coliseum for another ENO performance! We decided that rather than rushing a takeaway dinner after our old favourite Mod Pizza has shut up shop in the UK due to the pandemic, we'd head to one of the many pubs near the Coliseum and eat there. Looking at the pubs there was one serving Thai food which we wanted to try but by the time we got there it was full! It was half 6 at that point so we popped into a nice looking Thai place just a few doors down.

By 7 we had ordered, received and finished our entrees and we were waiting for our mains. But unfortunately it got to 7:15 and we still didn't have our food. By this time I was stressing, so I went to the bathroom in the restaurant, but I got back and we still didn't have any food! By that time Richard had asked for it to go instead, so at 7:25 we were literally running out the door of the restaurant with our food all boxed up (they did give us the noodles for free for the trouble, which was nice) the one minute to the theatre.

We arrived, had to run down to the cloakroom (of course we couldn't take our food to our seats!) which had already closed, so find someone who could open it for us, check our food, then run up 2 flights of steps to our seats. Luckily we actually made it just while the orchestra was tuning up!

This performance was quite fun. As with other G&S performances we have seen, I knew the show well because of the version with Jon English in Australia in the 90s. This is definitely one of the more comedic operettas and I really enjoy the twisting of the plot in this particular show. They definitely added some things in an attempt to make the show even more funny, although we did feel a bit like some made them feel more like a panto - and not always in a good way. The addition of the Midshipmite was a good call, but they also added a silly Boris Johnson gag, a repeating seagull joke which was quite silly, and the worst one - one of the aunts who never lifted her head, walked with a cane (like a old person stereotype) and kept walking across the show or into parts of the stage. The rest of the audience seemed to think it was funnier than we did, so maybe it is funnier if you're British?

The main casting draw for UK people is Les Dennis, who is a famous comedian and was playing the role of Sir Joseph. He was fine, although it was clear he was not a singer. I much preferred the ENO cast proper though. There were a pair of Harewood Artists in the cast. This means that they have a special programme of training to boost and support their new careers. In this case, both Ralph Rackstraw (Elgan Llyr Thomas) and Josephine (Alexandra Oomens) were these artists and I was very impressed with them vocally. Particularly Josephine - I thought that she had a gorgeous voice and surprisingly good comic timing!

The 2 best performances were definitely Captain Corcoran and the Midshipmite (a new character created for this version to be the cabin boy, and played by a child). Rufus Bateman was the Midshipmite at this performance and he was appropriately cheeky and I felt like he added quite a lot to the performance. Turns out he also is a killer tap dancer! So was the Captain, played by John Savournin to a tee. He was serious when he needed to be and silly when needed too. They added some tap dancing into the show which I thought was very well placed.

Despite the drama getting in (and the fact we had to eat out dinner after the show when we got home!), it was a very enjoyable evening. After lots of modern musicals, I do enjoy an operetta to get back to my childhood, it feels like.