REVIEW: All Male Pirates Of Penzance, Richmond Theatre ✭✭✭

Sasha Regan's All Male Pirates Of Penzance

The key is truthfulness: the men play the female roles as truthfully as they can, in the context of the show, and by doing so, unlock different energies and synergies. Just as audiences roared at Mark Rylance’s Olivia in Twelfth Night, not because he was a man playing a woman, but because his so doing simply provided a different palette of choices, so too, in Regan’s productions, they roar at the antics as the men bring fresh perspective to some of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most loved and enduring characters and situations.