English National Opera: The Pirates of Penzance

I've seen many and various productions of Pirates of Penzance over the years, and find this one strangely colourless. The quality of the singing is fine, but the acting less so. The characters are pretty bland and static and lacking the humour that should be bursting forth. Chorus just stand there. The sets are simplistic to say the least, there's no sense of the rolling, rollicking seas, or the eerie ruins in the second act. Bright red pirate ship deck, plain blue backdrops. The feeling I get is one of an amateur production. Frederic looks bored half the time, the Pirate King does not swash and buckle, the Major General is a bit dodgy. And Ruth's eyes are scary! This is meant to be a romp; it comes across as turgid.