HMS Pinafore/Cox and Box

The production’s lovely, with its candy-box shipboard set and two complete changes of gorgeous gowns for the women’s chorus. But a little of the sheen has rubbed off this Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society double bill; there’s less sparkle here compared to their previous summer shows, both in energy level (though that may have been just the performance I saw) and in comic invention. Some of the cast get into a bit of diction trouble with their British accents, too. Alongside the cast’s reliably delightful SGSS veterans (Dave Ross, William J. Darkow, John Brookes) are two first-rate finds: Jenny Shotwell as Josephine, the captain’s daughter who falls in love below her station, and Derek Sellers, who understudied excellently in Saturday’s matinee as Ralph, the sailor in question. The SGSS also offers a savory and buoyant performance of Sullivan’s first (surviving) theater piece, the half-hour Cox and Box, as a curtain-raiser. GAVIN BORCHERT

Thursdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays, 2 p.m. Starts: July 9. Continues through July 24, 2010