The hit ENO desperately needs
Iolanthe ENO, London Coliseum
★★★★★
It’s a fair bet that this new production of one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most masterly operettas will prove the big popular hit that ENO has needed for a long time. A grand and gorgeous extravaganza of a show lapped up gratefully by an adoring first-night audience, it can surely withstand grapeshot from the critics. If Mike Leigh’s recent staging of
The Pirates of Penzance at this address erred on the side of good taste and seemed in consequence a little under-energised, Cal Mccrystal’s assault on Iolanthe fires on all cylinders and ends up over-egged, heavy-handed and frenetically busy. Running close to three hours, it is too long by 30 minutes, redundantly swelled by a lot of banal ad libbing and the interpolation of three extra characters (gamely played by Clive Mantle, Richard Leeming and Flick Ferdinando). The mantra that less is more applies.
As one might expect from a director responsible for the physical comedy routines in Paddington and One Man, Two Guvnors, Mccrystal is profligate with visual gags of a basic pantomime kind, from pratfalls to horses pooping. There is also enough innuendo to gratify the silliest 10-year-old.
Although we are spared jokes about Brexit, a simulacrum of Boris Johnson makes a brief appearance on a bicycle. The auditorium duly deliquesced in mirth, but I felt the puritanical spirit of W S Gilbert was harrumphing.
Nobody else will take offence: it’s all unfailingly good-natured, and the designs by the late lamented Paul Brown (who died shortly before rehearsals) look absolutely wonderful – the Coliseum’s Edwardian pomposity framing a gilded Victorian proscenium arch inside which sits a Richard Dadd fantasy of fairyland and a sumptuous imagining of Pugin’s parliamentary Gothic. The traditional special effects are a delight, as fairies fly across the stage or materialise through trapdoors as pretty backdrops rise and fall.
Sullivan’s genius is in safe hands too, with Timothy Henty leading an effervescent account of one of the composer’s most enchanting and inventive scores – its highlights including the virtuosic first-act finale and the almost Wagnerian music for Iolanthe’s redemption. There were terrific performances all round, with Yvonne Howard and Andrew Shore excelling as the Queen of the Fairies and Lord Chancellor, and Marcus Farnsworth and Ellie Laugharne as the dainty Arcadian Strephon and Phyllis. The chorus has a ball.
It’s undeniably a lot of fun, but a streak of vulgarity sells the original charm and wit short.
In rep until April 7. Tickets: 020 7845 9300; eno.org