THEATRE REVIEW: HMS Pinafore - at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Tuesday, July 5 to Saturday, July 9, 2016.

NOT quite your Jolly Jack Tars, but most certainly a jolly good show and immense fun.

Hardly to be expected that our mincing matelots — not all, but a good few, would have trouble telling their plimsoll line from a pinafore but you couldn’t fault this perfect parody.

Gilbert and Sullivan’s entertaining operetta bounces and flaunts on stage with its irrepressible all-male cast in which around half of the ensemble sing falsetto.

How well it works. It’s not cheesy, nor is it nudge, nudge, wink, wink time with its aura of one of those productions performed by pupils at a single-sex boarding school and even a hint of a POW camp show - a la It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.

Director Sasha Regan has amassed quite a reputation for her all-male productions of comic opera and this latest offering clearly strengthens her stock in creating innovative, entertaining and beautiful work.

She apparently sticks to a tight budget, spartan sets and props but providing plenty of food for thought for both for the audience’s imaginations and, to an extent, the actors as a swift switch of garment from neckerchief to head-wear, the roll-up of trouser legs, together with shy poses and those quality falsetto voices ensuring a tangible change of gender.

Because of the minimal props - just a handful of metal bunk beds and a few boxes, it’s only the scruffy uniforms, character names and the show’s title that indicate a maritime theme - apart from a long rope held taut by two sailors which gives the impression of being on deck.

Musical director Richard Bates, who accompanies all the numbers from a side-of-stage piano, does a first class job eliciting some fine voices such as Ben Irish’s Josephine and David McKechnie’s excellent Buttercup, but the whole cast have a rich repertoire.

Neil Moors (Captain Corcoran) packs a powerful voice and there are enjoyable diversions created by James Waud as a skulking Dick Deadeye and Richard Russell Edwards’ Hebe. But the highlight was Michael Burgen’s Sir Joseph Porter KGB - played in delightfully comic way which evoked memories of a Two Ronnies sketch from Messrs Barker and Corbett!

It’s a fresh take on G and S but with the spirit of the original still burning brightly, and well worth a look - even if you are not an opera devotee.