The Mikado 1987

Jonathan Miller set his well-known production of The Mikado, staged for the English National Opera, in a British seaside resort of the 1920s. The result, complete with a chorus of gentlemen of Japan as cartoon-like British peers, emphatically underscores the Englishness of the satire. The occasional non sequiturs, like a bunch of gentry dressed for Ascot and singing in Japanese, are loonily fun, and no more absurd than the fantasyland Japan that Gilbert and Sullivan invented. The time frame, though, seems little more than an excuse for a smart black-and-white production design.

Cast:

Eric Idle
Ko-Ko 

Lesley Garrett
Yum-Yum 

Bonaventura Bottone
Nanki-Poo 

Richard Van Allan
Pooh-Bah 

Felicity Palmer
Katisha 

Richard Angas
The Mikado of Japan