First of all I will admit that G&S is not my thing. I find the plots silly, many of the songs utterly boring and that the staging is often lacking in energy. I say this as a director myself, and having seen a particularly bad update of this show into the realms of star trek: the 'starship pinafore' no less.
However, in complete contrast to the other reviewer I found this production fresh, fun, self-consciously camp and at the end I found that I could actually like this G&S thing. I loved the camp choreography, the revolving set, the physical creepiness of Forsyth and its general lack of reverence. Above all it made the show accessible. It certainly wasn't without weak moments of course, some of the ad-libs were cringe-making, while there were times when the actors playing Josephine and Ralph just couldn't be understood - particularly in the upper realms of their registers. Similarly, I found some of the lighting fairly poor and uninspiring.
Nonetheless, I found this production engaging - good actors with good voices; characterisation that didn't make you want to knock sense into the ingénues is, in my eyes, a Good Thing. With a plot that is silly as anything it is clear that the interpretation was meant to reflect that silliness; meaning that when a moment of genuine emotion or sadness or regret was expressed, it was far more effective than a production, for example, that wanted to go heavily dramatic and serious.
I would recommend this show to someone who has never seen a G&S production as a nice segue into the other shows and interpretations. Although it was modernised and often tongue-in-cheek, I felt it never undermined the history of the show. Now I want to see the Mikado and Pirates of Penzance. And I never thought I'd say that.
