Put ‘Mikado’ on the list of shows not to be missed
Milwaukee Opera Theatre’s clever staging of “The Mikado” could make a fan of Jimmy Fallon & The Roots’ performances on classroom instruments sit up and go “Yum-Yum.”
The MOT cast sings the Gilbert & Sullivan songs with enthusiasm while trifling with every other convention — and playing a host of percussion and other instruments, not all of them listed in Grove’s Dictionary of Music. (Take a bow, rubber chicken.)
This production, seen during a Thursday evening preview, returns nearly all of the cast from its 2015 debut. Directors Jill Anna Ponasik and Catie O’Donnell put the performers in street clothes (with brightly colored gym shoes) on Next Act Theatre’s bare stage, sidestepping awkward questions about how Japanese to make a silly comic opera nominally set in Japan. Choreographed by James Zager, constantly moving little groups of performers on a bare floor often made me think of modern dance (if modern dance came with arias and Boomwhackers).
To oversimplify a goofy plot: The dunderheaded Mikado (Doug Jarecki) has decreed flirting a capital offense punishable by execution. His adult son Nanki-Poo (Nathan Wesselowski) has fled home, disguised as a second trombone, er, wandering minstrel, to avoid the ardent embrace of Katisha (Diane Lane). NankiPoo wants to marry Yum-Yum (Susan Wiedmeyer), but she is betrothed to the Lord High Executioner, Ko-Ko (Jason Powell), who took that post only to stave off his own execution for flirting.
Comic mayhem and airy persiflage ensue, mocking venal officials and ridiculous laws. Powell updates “As Some Day It May Happen” (a.k.a. “I’ve got a little list”) with topical references to call out contemporary offenders.
Like every opera, this “Mikado” requires the audience to believe impossible things: for example, that the striking Lane is a repulsive harridan whose face sends men fleeing. In her black leather jacket, she might just be too intimidating for the wimpy men of Titipu.
This “Mikado” blends the trained voices of Wesselowski, Lane and other cast members with the Jack Black-style vocal energy of Powell, and it all works. Secondary performers sing their bits, then glide gracefully back into the vocal ensemble and percussion choir. Pianist Ruben Piirainen is occasionally pulled into the proceedings, even addressed meta-theatrically. Singers occasionally break up, but it would take a vocalist with Vulcan discipline not to laugh at some of this.
New cast member Kelly Doherty is one of the production’s secret weapons, singing in the ensemble and playing flute, concertina and toy piano — and in the final two performances on March 25 and 26, she’ll take over the role of Pish-Tush played by Doug Clemons.