H.M.S. Pinafore

The dancing was good, the set was perfect, the orchestra was just right.

The cast was also perfect, except, unfortunately, for two individuals who appear only to be cast in an attempt to garner greater views: Peter Marshall as the captain and Frankie Howerd as Sir Joseph.

Peter Marshall overacts far more than necessary for the role, and frankly there are plenty of more than qualified English actors that could have been found, since his accent is distracting. So it's clear that he was chosen simply because he is a name that people would have recognised.

Frankie Howerd clearly didn't learn his lines and can hardly pronounce them. He improvises enough words to get him through the scene, bearing only minor resemblance to what is in the script. He also didn't sing, but rather, a la Rex Harrison (though not half as gracefully) just speaks them generally near to the note, looking annoyed and occasionally sighing in the process. It's also clear that he doesn't care for the lines, and he's not trying to add to Sir Joseph's character by acting like that, as one can see by watching the behind the scenes feature. However, it is rather funny when Sir Joseph cannot remember the Captain's name, a mistake that I could almost believe was unintentional, since Howerd is about as much a buffoon in real life as Sir Joseph was in fiction.

These choices, unfortunately, make this production stick out poorly in the Brent Walker collection, which does have some fairly decent videos, and some fairly decent talent that one wouldn't have otherwise expected. It is also clear that the direction and other aspects of the production did as best as they could, and it is unfortunate to have two stains on what could have otherwise been a good rendition.

Speaking in terms of what could have been, for instance, Keith Mitchell who the series had cast as the Major General, Robin Oakapple, and Don Alhambra del Bolero would have made the perfect Sir Joseph. Likewise, Donald Adams or Derek Hammond-Stroud who played a number of Brent Walker baritone parts would have been suitable captains. If they wanted a household name to bring in the views, at least someone who could sing and memorise the lines, like Clive Revill, would have been more sufficient than Frankie Howerd.

My mother in law just gave us this as a gift recently,a nd we watched it this afternoon. For the most part, it was very enjoyable. The one part my husband and I did not like, in fact we down right hated it, was the fact that the actor portraying Sir Joseph Porter spoke his songs, not sang them. Sir Joseph's songs are some of the best in the whole operetta of HMS Pinafore, and it was very disappointing to see this not done the way it could be. On the other hand, all the other actors were superb. It was wierd seeing Peter Marshall sing, I am so used to seeing him behind a game show host type console asking questions. Except for the detail mentioned above, a good production. I only wish our group in Pittsburgh had more of a budget to do the staging like the opera world productions have.

This was the worst presentation of HMS Pinafore I've ever seen. My high school drama class performed this musical and did a lot better job than these jokers. Peter Marshall as Captain Corcoran dances around like a loon. As mentioned elsewhere, Frankie Howerd talks the lines of his songs instead of singing, which is awful. And the actor who plays Josephine, Meryl Drower, looks like she's as old as Peter Marshall. It's not believable that she could be his daughter. They should have gotten a lot younger actor to play Josephine. I was very disappointed with this. With the actors who actually could sing pretty well, Ralph (Michael Bulman), Dick Deadeye (Alan Watt) and Buttercup (Della Jones), the instruments in the music are too loud and it almost drowns out the words of the songs.

I was so excited when I first bought H.M.S. Pinafore on Video. It is one of my favorite musicals, along with many of the other Gilbert & Sullivan operas, but when I watched it for the first time, I was somewhat disappointed. Most of the cast does a really good job with their respective roles. What really infuriated me was Frankie Howerd's interpretation of Sir Joseph Porter. For one thing, he didn't sing a single lyric, he actually spoke through them. When the chorus came in between his solo lines, it didn't make any musical sense. That most definitely would have made Sullivan, who was very adamant about his music being heard, very angry. Another thing he did was ad-lib most of his lines, something Gilbert, being the strict man that he was, would not have allowed. He also had a very annoying speaking voice which I could barely stand listening to. Peter Marshall has a great singing voice and would have otherwise been perfect for the role of Captain Corcoran. Even though he was good in the singing and the dialogue, his manner was too childish. He lacked the dignity that the Captain traditionally has and thought it more suitable to dance around like a five-year-old at a birthday party. I thought it made him look like an idiot. Also, the woman playing Buttercup didn't have a strong singing voice. To me, it sounded like she took a breath between every single word in her aria at the beginning of the show. She also kind of over did it with the acting business toward the end. The rest of the cast was really good. The only minor disappointment I had was that the man playing Rackstraw didn't hit the high note in his recitative leading into the first act, but that's not really a big deal. He was terrific, otherwise. Not the best in the series, but at least it completes the collection.

I love Gilbert and Sullivan, but the productions in this series are so bad I winced watching them. When Captain Corcoran first appeared on deck, I furrowed by brow and said out loud, "No, it can't be." But sure enough, a check of the credits revealed that the hardy captain of the H.M.S. Pinafore actually was game show icon Peter Marshall. That claim to fame and his constant horse-toothed grin were distracting enough, but his terrible performance made watching this version of Pinafore almost unbearable. Pete should have stuck to the likes of Yahtzee! and Hollywood Squares. Frankie Howerd speaks most of his lines as Sir Joseph. That may have worked fine for Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, but it was a deep disappointment to a die-hard G&S fan waiting to hear some of his favorite songs actually sung. The cast includes a plain-looking Josephine and downright ugly (and aging) Ralph Rackstraw. I focus on Pinafore because it is usually my favorite and was so horribly wrecked here. But the other productions in the series are no better. The choreography is consistently overwrought to the point of being downright silly. The singing, while at times good, is generally uneven. Spoken lines often are poorly delivered. The series was taped in 1982. It shows its age, and not only from the silly looking, big 70s-80s hair on all the men. The camera work is awkward, the sets invariably cheesy. In one scene in Pirates of Penzance, the camera rises from behind a potted plant in an effect reminiscent of early public access cable television. I could go on, and really I'd like to find positive things to say, but I do so love G&S, whose work here is turned into something so bad it's difficult to watch. I was going to sell my boxed set and the extra DVDs I purchased, but I would not inflict them on someone else. Save your money and invest in some of the excellent audio versions that are available.