Petrified Truth

Second-rate productions can, undeniably, be ­tedious. Speech and music have to be seamless; timing is vital; the mechanism is as precise – and as likely to malfunction if done hamfistedly – as Rossini. The plot moves forward by way of the dialogue: do it badly and the show will grind to a halt. G&S can never work as a series of short, ­disconnected musical numbers; it is an integrated work of divine lunacy, ­propelled by an inner logic, or it is nothing.