Having wooed audiences in the UK and Australia with the award-winning Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore and The Mikado, Sasha Regan returns with her most critically acclaimed production, Iolanthe, which broke all box office records on its transfer to Wilton’s Music Hall in 2011.
Torches flash in the darkness as a party of naughty schoolboys adventure into the magical surroundings of an old theatre. Amid all the backstage paraphernalia they discover a Narnia-like wardrobe and a dusty copy of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe. What follows is pure magic!
Universally regarded as Sir Arthur Sullivan’s most beautiful score, Iolanthe is a topsy-turvy love
story between the most unlikely of couples… fairies and members of the House of Lord’s! Sasha
Regan’s all male, award-winning company return with their best received production. Her inimitable inventiveness combined with Gilbert and Sullivan’s inherent barminess make for an unmissable night out.
Iolanthe became the fourth consecutive major success for Gilbert and Sullivan. It was the first work to premiere at the Savoy and first new theatre production in the world to be illuminated entirely with electric lights!
Sasha Regan comments, I am thrilled that Iolanthe will be touring once again! These all-male
productions stem from my memories of performing Gilbert and Sullivan’s productions when I was at a single-sex school and I’ve always loved the innocence attached to these productions. The laughter and playfulness afforded by setting it in this all-male environment allows the audience to really tap into the ‘topsy turvy’ world without being detached from it.
When it premiered in 2011 Iolanthe was nominated for numerous Off West End Awards – Best
Director, Best Choreographer, Best Production, Best Costume Design and Best Male Performance.
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. If there is a message, it is that everyone needs to release their inner fairy… Irresistible (* * * * The Guardian). Sasha Regan and her boys are doing something just as gloriously fresh and inventive as Matthew Bourne did with Swan Lake (* * * * The Independent).
30th April – 5th May Theatre Royal Winchester Jewry Street, Winchester, SO23 8SB
11th- 12th May Hall for Cornwall Back Quay, Truro, TR1 2LL
15th – 19th May Richmond Theatre Little Green, Richmond TW9 1QJ
21st – 22nd May Theatre Royal Windsor 32 Thames Street, Windsor, SL4 1PS
28th – 30th May East Riding Theatre 10 Lord Roberts Rd, Beverley HU17 9BE
31st May – 2nd June Bridlington Spa South Marine Drive, Bridlington, YO15 3JH
5th – 9th June Exeter Northcott Theatre Stocker Road, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4QB
12th – 16th June Theatre Royal Bath Sawclose, Bath, BA1 1ET
19th – 23rd June Theatre Royal Brighton New Road, Brighton, BN1 1SD
3rd – 7th July Cambridge Arts Theatre 6 St Edward’s Passage, Cambridge, CB2 3PJ
10th – 14th July Festival Theatre Malvern Grange Road, Malvern, WR14 3HB
19th – 21st July Theatre Severn Frankwell Quay, Shrewsbury, SY3 8FT
23rd – 28th July Greenwich Theatre Crooms Hill, London SE10 8ES
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