The very first Gilbert & Sullivan operetta I saw was Sasha Regan’s all-male The Mikado – more years ago than I can remember – in her Union Theatre. Last night I went to see Sasha’s all-male The Mikado once again and a lot has changed in those intervening years, writes Michael Holland.
Sasha has moved into new premises, The all-male Mikado is now a touring staple, and Ms Regan’s direction gets better and better as she takes her Gilbert & Sullivans into theatres up and down the land.
She has moved the action from Japan into a middle-class England between the wars where its basic jibe at British politics can be more keenly felt – and all without hardly changing the script or the music, which still bounces merrily along as if the nation had nothing at all to worry about with its out-dated rules and regulations that are changed willy-nilly to suit – So no change from reality there…
Set in what appears to be a Boy Scout Jamboree where there is more than enough opportunity to ramp up the camp, and with all the levels of hierarchy needed for this play, the scene is soon set in Titipu – Little England.
Jobs and titles are handed out like an outgoing Prime Minister’s Honours List: Albert Barr (Aidan Nightingale) has more roles than he can handle but can still manage to put paid to the High Executioner’s (David McKechnie) plan to marry Miss Violet Plumb (Sam Kipling) depending on what hat he has on. But that is only the start of the problems.
A wandering minstrel (Declan Egan) wanders in and immediately falls in love with Miss Plumb, then pays for information about her, and then finds out she is betrothed to Mr Cocoa (High Executioner), and then his betrothed Kitty Shaw (Christopher Hewitt) turns up and threatens to reveal his little secret, and then I put down the notebook and let the farcical frolics wash over me in a sea of soprano and falsetto as the action spills out from the stage to up in the balcony and along the aisles.
There are a few familiar faces from Union Theatre works and previous all-male Gilbert & Sullivans, chosen by the director because Sasha knows they do a good job, and they are very ably supplemented by a troupe who all create their own highlights in this amazing show, under the guidance of Adam Haigh on choreography and Musical Director Anto Buckley.
This Victorian bundle of laughs, where you soon forget that there are no females, is perfect for this Victorian music hall.
Wilton’s Music Hall, Grace’s Alley, E1 until July 1st. Times: 7:30pm Mon – Sat / Thu & Sat matinees 2:30pm. Admission: £12.50 – £32.
Booking: www.wiltons.org.uk
