Product Review

Earning rave reviews during its Stratford run, this operetta takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to British class structure, the admiralty and the riling classes. It's also a love story with a multitude of permutations. Josephine (Katherine Terrell) plans to elope with sailor Ralph Rackstraw (James McLean), but their plans are spoiled by villainous Deck Deadeye. In the meantime, Josephine's father, has promised her hand in marriage to the pompous and elderly Sir Joseph Porter. Everyone is dissatisfied until Little Buttercup, a Portsmouth bumboat woman, discloses a startling, decade-old secret and, in the end, allows love to triumph.