The programme for this production of The Pirates of Penzance contains an essay by director Steven Dexter. It's worth reading, since without it, you might find the show confusing. After acknowledging the impact amateur productions made on him as a kid, Dexter states that his aim is to "bring out the sexiness in G&S's ideas".
For this we should be grateful. Decades of viewing G&S as decorous Victoriana has made us forget the erotic undertones in their work. When Gilbert's pirates tell us they are "tired of tossing on the sea", for example, they don't just mean they're fed up with being stuck on a ship.
Amateur dramatics, meanwhile, are synonymous with "end-of-pier" shows, and Dexter accordingly relocates Pirates to the end of Paignton Pier, where Hadley Fraser's randy Frederic fantasises about the various attractions on offer.
The pirates, led by Anthony Head, emerge from behind one of those comic boards you shove your head through. General Stanley's Daughters are can-can dancers to whom Elin Wyn Lewis's frumpy Mabel acts as a dresser. Singing Poor Wandering One, she leads Frederic on a trip through the Tunnel of Love before dragging him into a beach hut, which then vibrates with their exertions.
In the midst of all this, however, Dexter misses the crucial point that Pirates is essentially a satirical attack on both a hereditary aristocracy that believes it has the right to act outside the law and on a legal system that hinders rather than helps justice. The score, meanwhile, has been rewritten as an all-purpose Broadway-style musical, and General Stanley's act-two solo, which should betray the old man's vulnerability, mutates into a massive 42nd Street-style tap routine.
The best performance comes from Fraser, who sings Frederic's music with an appealing sexuality. Head, in silk and leather, looks gorgeous, but croons when he needs to be flamboyant. It's entertaining, but any one who remembers Joseph Papp's rock-opera version in the 1980s will find it wanting.
· Until March 6. Box office: 0870 164 8787.
