Hot Mikado

Hot Mikado, was performed 15th - 18th March, 2006 in Boldrewood Lecture Theatre A.

Performances

Wednesday 15th March, 2006
7.30pm
£7.50 (concessions £5.50)
Thursday 16th March, 2006
7.30pm
£7.50 (concessions £5.50)
Friday 17th March, 2006
7.30pm
£8.50 (concessions £6.50)
Saturday 18th March, 2006 (matinee)
2.30pm
£8.50 (concessions £6.50)
Saturday 18th Match, 2006 (evening)
7.30pm
£8.50 (concessions £6.50)

What is the Hot Mikado?

The Mikado, the 19th-century operetta by Sir William Gilburt and Sir Arthur Sullivan, was the biggest musical comedy sensation of the Victorian era. Gilbert set his opera in Imperial Japan, supposedly because a Japanese sword that fell off his wall inspired him. More likely it was because he knew London was undergoing a craze for everything Japanese, and a musical set there would sell. But The Mikado, though set in Japan and filled with Japanese references, names and glorious costumes, was really about English morality and satirized the British love of propriety and legality.

The success of the show was something many writers and producers tried to cash in on during the 1920s in America. There were three separate productions called Cool Mikado, Jazz Mikado and Swing Mikado. They all showed very little regard for the original authors and were financially disastrous.

In the 1930s, producer Mike Todd created Hot Mikado, taking the G&S musical, retaining its plot, but changing the lyrics to reflect the times and jazzing up the music, adding swing rhythms, blues numbers and an all-black cast headed by Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. The show was still set in Japan, and featured Gilbert's British satire, plus plenty of jokes about the political situation in 1939 Depression-era New York. The music was still Sullivan's, but with a very different beat, and it was immediately very successful.

In 1986, Alliance Theatre Company director David H. Bell wanted to revive Hot Mikado but discovered that what little remained of the original were mostly just Sullivan's music performed by an all-black cast. So he and musical director ROb Bowman created their own adaptation, which premiered at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC, and then went on to become a huge hit in London's West End.

Principals

The MIKADO - Adam Street
The big "cat" of Japan.
NANKI-POO - Paul Thomas
The son of the Mikado.
YUM-YUM - Jacqueline Kimber
The ward of Titipu's Lord High Executioner
PITTI-SING - Kate Brown
Yum-Yum's sister
PEEP-BO - Holly Davis
Yum-Yum's sister
PISH-TUSH - Tim Sutton
The "coolest" Gentleman of Japan
KO-KO - Dan Farrell
Lord High Executioner
POOH-BAH - Ian Watts
Lord High "everything else"
KATISHA - Chiara Dodd
Nanki-Poo's spurned suitor

Chorus

Peter Bell, Sarah Birchall, Louise Darvill, Chris Dawkins, Charlotte Fosker, Sam Frith, George Hartgroves, Simon Kain, Alex Kew, Tessa Lambton, Stephanie Langbridge, Joe Leigh, Sarah Maker, Michelle Marks, Fiona Moran, Danny Neville, Steve Opie, Emma Rigby, Claire Robertson, Nicholas Shaikh, Sarah Shepherd, Chris Suart, Andy Towns, Emma Watt.