HMS Pinafore review: A little rough and ready but energetic

If you think of Gilbert and Sullivan at all, you probably see the witty rhymes, politely tuneful melodies and gentle satire of their operas as the quintessence of Victorian England.

True enough, but there’s more to it than that. In the States there have been versions of HMS Pinafore (premiered in London in 1878) in Yiddish, others with all-black casts.

Without attempting anything so radical, John Savournin’s production for Charles Court Opera has its own playful inventiveness. Gilbert’s text is no Marxist tract, but it pokes fun at the class-ridden hierarchies of English society as represented on board HMS Pinafore (here, a submarine). Cue bogus cut-glass and mockney accents all round.

Josephine, daughter of the vessel’s Captain, is due to marry the First Lord of the Admiralty but she’s forlornly in love with Able Seaman Ralph Rackstraw. Misadventures befall almost everyone until in the blink of an eye (spoiler alert) the world turns upside down and love triumphs.

It’s flimsy stuff, but, there are catchy tunes aplenty (with only a piano as accompaniment) and some genuinely comic turns, all delivered with maximum volume and vitality by the small cast. Savournin’s staging is a winning blend of Benny Hill knockabout, operatic parody and music hall song-and-dance.

The singing is occasionally a little rough and ready but what matters more is the energy, with two notable performances: Joseph Shovelton’s miniature masterpiece of zany grotesquery as First Lord, and Jennie Jacobs’s vivacious charm as Little Buttercup.

Until May 11 (0207 226 8561, kingsheadtheatre.com)