BWW Reviews: RUDDIGORE (OR THE WITCH'S CURSE) , Bridewell Theatre, June 6 2015

There are a handful of experiences that I envy those who are yet to have the pleasure - indeed, watching one's children delight in them is one of parenthood's compensations. There's reading Stephen King's The Stand, eating pasta with truffles and cream (okay, truffle oil and cream) and walking into an almost empty Lord's Cricket Ground early on the first morning of a Test match. Pretty high on this - what, vicarious bucket list? - is the moment one "gets" Gilbert and Sullivan. Okay, not everybody does, but that makes it even better for those of us who do!!

Fast becoming my favourite of the G&S canon is Ruddigore, the one that was almost lost in the backwash of The Mikado's smashiest of smash hits. There are funnier works, there are ones with fewer holes in the plot (though all have plenty) but there are surely none in which the twin geniuses complement each other to greater effect. The songs are fantastic - every one a standout, Arthur Sulivan's melodies never clinging to William Gilbert's dazzlingly intelligent lyrics with greater fidelity.

The plot - though, as is the case with PG Wodehouse, the plot is the least of it - concerns the curse placed upon the Baronets of Ruddigore, requiring the incumbent to commit a dreadful crime every day or die in agony. There's also a troupe of professional bridesmaids sadly lacking work, a chancer of a sailor and a mad woman calmed only by the word "Basingstoke". If you think that sounds like something that might not have made it through a writers' meeting in the Scooby Doo production office, you're right - but, of course, it really doesn't matter, matter, matter...

This production, by the Grosvenor Light Opera Company, was splendid! It was thrilling to hear a 16-piece orchestra giving full value to the tunes - those tunes! - in so intimate a theatre. Up against all those instruments (and some splendid playing, because the notes come thick and fast) one could forgive the non-professional cast if the instruments overpowered them (it happens often in professional fringe theatre after all). But not a bit of it - a mix of very experienced singers and students carried off the gig with great aplomb.

The big setpieces (under director Vicky Simon) were a delight. The well stocked choruses such companies can field, made a spooky group of ghosts, dressed in wonderful costumes as cardinals, soldiers, teachers and plenty more (a mix of professions that reminded me of Sweeney's "A Little Priest" song) - "When The Night Wind Blows", always a high point, was brilliantly realised. And (naturally) we were all wating for the patter song - could they pull it off at full tilt? Why, of couse they could, with Robert Richmond, Laura Burgoyne and Edward Jowle (still in training but already emanating star quailty like a West End veteran) nailing it as well as any trio I've seen.

It's easy, especially when you live in a city with professional companies putting stuff on in rooms above half the pubs still left standing, to be wary and dismissive of am-dram, but every time I've seen G&S done by the non-pros, I've enjoyed it enormously - and this production was no exception. What a pleasure it was!

You can read more about the Grosvenor Light Opera Company by clicking here - you can even get involved yourself.