Our heritage

The Pirates of Penzance (2000)

Music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert

The Pirates of Penzance was the first 'Gilbert and Sullivan' musical staged at the Open Air Theatre. It was directed by Artistic Director Ian Talbot.
The Pirates of Penzance (2000)
Photo: Alastair Muir

The cast

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Thomas Aaron

Pirate/Policeman

John Conroy

Pirate/Policeman

Nigel Harman

Pirate/Policeman

Tim Godwin

Pirate/Policeman

Sara Hillier

Edith

Joanne Redman

Kate

Bernadine Pritchett

Nora

Lucy Quick

Mabel

Creative team

Designer

Terry Parsons

Musical Director

Catherine Jayes

Assistant Musical Director

William Barnett

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Musical Arrangements

Steven Edis

Lighting Designer

Jason Taylor

Fight Director

Terry King

Sound Designer

Simon Whitehorn

Sound Operator

Angela McCluney

Sound Operator

Chris Whelan

Assistant Director

Clare Prenton

Programmes and Marketing

Rehearsals

Misc Images

Reviews

The Guardian

"even if Ian Talbot's production occasionally overpitches camp, it still works like a dream in Regents Park and offers more fun than most of London's other musicals put together." " beguilingly combines both English absurdity and American showbiz expertise"

The Independent

"There are, of course, different weights and colours to the crystal in Ian Talbot's cracking cast." "Mark Umbers, as Frederic, the gentle pirate-by-mistake, could feature in Lisa Simpson's favourite magazine, Non-Threatening Males. Courtly and graceful, politely resigned to death before dishonour, he has one well-bred loss of temper, then retreats in shame and sucks his thumb." "Lucy Quick's gloriously liquid voice justifies her goofy self-absorption as a Mabel who is clearly less enamoured of Frederic than of her own ability to hold her top notes."

The Spectator

"Ian Talbot's team is brilliantly led by Jimmy Johnston as the Pirate King and Gay Soper as an unusually Scots Ruth; elsewhere the casting is largely of newcom- ers, but they have all taken perfect measure of the park's tricky acoustic and more importantly of its need for unbridled vivaci- ty. Gillian Gregory's choreography is per- fectly end-of-the-pier, and all in all this is the great alfresco musical treat of the London year."

Awards

Outstanding Musical Production

Olivier Award: Nominated

Best Director

Olivier Award: Nominated

Best Actor in a Musical

Olivier Award: Nominated