You wait all your life and then, suddenly, three dud productions of the Pirates of Penzance come along at the same time. This is the third that I have reviewed recently. Apparently most of the performers in this production are British actors miming to the New York cast recording. The principals are also miming so it is difficult to tell whether their own voices are used or whether other people's are dubbed on. Anyway, the singing sounds fake. I reckon that it is a semitone above pitch suggesting that the performers were miming to a speeded-up soundtrack. This explains why most of the singers sound like Donald Duck. It would also explain the frenetic choreography and the fact that the opera is about 20% faster than it should be. In view of this, further criticism seems pointless but I would just add that Kevin Kline's performance is particularly irritating and he should leave the silly walks to John Cleese.
Review of The Pirates of Penzance
