Brought to you by the same team who created the award winning, all-male The Pirates of Penzance, this absurdly silly but sweetly touching version of Iolanthe is a comic pleasure. I must confess to limited tolerance of Gilbert and Sullivan and extended high camp, but Sasha Regan's revival is irresistible. If there is a message, it is that everyone needs to release their inner fairy.
Framed as a tale told by a group of schoolboys creeping into their dusty school basement at the dead of night, Regan's production embraces the daftness of the plot. Fairyland is in a collision with the political establishment as a half-fairy Arcadian shepherd attempts to find true love with Phyllis, a woman who is ward of court to the Lord Chancellor. There's a sweetly sung Iolanthe from Christopher Finn and a comic Fairy Queen from Kris Manuel, who appears to have stepped straight out of the Rovers Return.
The fact that the twisting plot isn't always easy to follow hardly matters. Regan's production has its own driving energy and makes terrific use of the Union's tiny, cobweb-like space. The raggle-taggle costumes are picture perfect: old dressing gowns, fairy wings fashioned from cricket nets, shuttlecock headdresses and conker necklaces.
The simple piano accompaniment allows the cracked beauty of the score to shine, and while there are moments when voices are a little strained and ragged, it is easy to forgive in an evening that revels in its own cut-price bag of magic tricks and enchantment.
Until 11 December. Box office: 020-7261 9876
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