No 6 -- April 1977 Edited by Michael Walters
LEWISHAM O.S. The Pirates of Penzance, Thursday 10 March 1977.
I slipped down to Catford for the first Act of this production, realising that I had not seen the Society since 1972, when I saw Malcolm Ward give a magnificent performance as Jack Point. He has now left the Society. The production was fairly conventional. Much as I approve of the Queen, I do not approve of the National Anthem opening a light opera production. The Overture had to compete a very ill-behaved audience who talked all through it, but the Conductor (David Ward) maintained a respectable dignity throughout in his demeanour and his music. His style was taut and precise. Shelagh Lewis (Ruth) had a somewhat "upper-crust" voice, and looked and acted sometimes rather like a dowager-duchess, and sometimes like a Joan Sims-type waitress. She was better looking than Frederic. The Pirate King (Chris Arden) had a Terry Thomas moustache. He had quite a good bottom register, but nothing much on top and no idea how to act - but he threw himself into the part with gusto, and what he lacked in talent he made up for in exuberance. He was perpetually laughing (I suspect he may have been trying to act like Terry Thomas too). He said "Its only half past 10, and you are one of us till the clock strikes 11." - this was obviously not a deliberate alteration, for Fred did not pick it up, and said 12 o'clock. Sheila Caton (Edith) had a pretty voice but her top notes were alternately dry and sharp. Alice Grafton (Kate) was embarrassingly off-key. Ken Marks (Frederic) is no longer young, and his voice has lost its former creamy tone, but he still acts intelligently and sings with power and clarity of line, though on a couple of occasions it seemed to be taking a lot out of him. Margaret Collins (Mabel) had a rather constrained voice, which was strident on top; she made rather heavy weather of "Poor wandering One" - she did not attempt a cadenza. The chorus were ahead of the orchestra in "How beautifully blue..." Ken Brown (Major-Gen) made a laboured attempt at his patter song: he made great display of being decrepit on his entrance but failed to keep this up. He spoke his dialogue well. To my amazement the "often-orphan," joke (in full) worked; from the treatment it got, it oughtn't to have done. MICHAEL WALTERS
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