Modern-day pirates in the Park

For a Regent's Park virgin like myself, fearing rain on Friday and with no previous convictions about the venue, this Pirates of Penzance was a completely authentic delight.

The Open Air Theatre has had Lottery funds to improve itself - and opened on time, which must mean not much money involved. The seating is unchanged for the time being. It can only have been the cast's unstoppable energy, leaping without mishap around the obstacle course of Terry Parsons's funfare set, racing up the banks at the sides and through the front rows over the patrons, which kept the weather at bay.

Ian Talbot's production takes its cue (or, rather, the odd nip and tuck in its shape) from Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival version - a huge hit 20 years ago. If Papp has affected the result, it's mainly in the jitterbug physicality of it all. Voices are broadly amplified, which they'd need to be here. It's an actors' rather than singers' cast, and they play manically up front with words and music. No dropped catches. Pace never flags. "We are rough men," says one of the Pirates. "Rough, rough," bark the rest.

After a gentle start, we soon adjust to the sheer chutzpah and professionalism behind the false beards of the Pirates or the improbable light-blue uniforms, transatlantic Keystone-Cops style, and Tiller-Girl routines of the policemen. Lucy Quick's penetrating Mabel, toothsome and slick at stratospheric arpeggios (but not quite Lesley Garrett), has an endearingly arch microphone manner. You notice it because, actually, they've all got throat mikes dangling from hats and hairstyles like saline drips in ER.

Things may look cheap and cheerful, but this is a precision event at every level. Shrieks of laughter peal out into the night. Steven Edis's musical arrangements use a handful of instruments and lots of percussion. Conductor Catherine Jayes captains the synthesiser, maintaining a very tight, neat ship.

The winner of his class for sheer effort rewarded has to be Jimmy Johnston's endearing leather-trousered Pirate King. Gay Soper as a handsome light-footed Ruth runs him close. Mark Umbers has just the right sweetness, clean jaw and semi-pomposity for Frederic, and Paul Bradley's Major-General gives a sturdy performance without stealing the show. Dapper Stephen Matthews is the campest, funniest Sergeant I've ever encountered. No chorus of daughters, but Bernadine Pritchett's Nora has a particularly agreeable singing voice and sincere charm.

The Pirates of Penzance