Players return with The Mikado

Back Row, L-R: Pooh-Bah (Simon Blenkin), The Mikado (Tony Smith), Pish-Tush (Philip Dawson), Peep-Bo (Cat Johnson)
Front Row, L-R: Pitti-Sing (Mel Ewles), Yum-Yum (Sue Goldspink), Nanki-Poo (Mike Hammond), Ko-Ko (John Torr), Katisha (Julie Bjerregaard) — Back Row, L-R: Pooh-Bah (Simon Blenkin), The Mikado (Tony Smith), Pish-Tush (Philip Dawson), Peep-Bo (Cat Johnson) Front Row, L-R: Pitti-Sing (Mel Ewles), Yum-Yum (Sue Goldspink), Nanki-Poo (Mike Hammond), Ko-Ko (John Torr), Katisha (Julie Bjerregaard)

Gilbert’s delightfully OTT comedy is ideal family entertainment with its bizarre characters and surreal topsy-turvy storyline, which gets hopelessly and hilariously convoluted before a final twist resolves the situation.

Sullivan’s musical settings include the memorable ‘A Wandering Minstrel I’, the ‘Little List’ (of those

who won’t be missed), the ‘Cheap and Chippy Chopper’, ‘The Sun Whose Rays’, ‘My Object All Sublime’ (To make the punishment fit the crime), ‘Alone and Yet Alive’, and ‘Tit-willow’.

Under The Mikado’s law flirting is a crime punishable by execution. The citizens of Titipu respond by making Ko-Ko, already convicted, Lord High Executioner - safe in the knowledge that he can’t execute anyone else until he’s executed himself.

So, when The Mikado insists on an execution, he-needs to find a voluntary substitute!

In a brilliant sub-plot Nanki-Poo arrives: he is in love with Yum-Yum, Ko-Ko’s fiancée, which isn’t going to work. He is also the Mikado’s son who, disguised as a wandering minstrel, has fled his father’s court to escape the attention of the predatory Katisha. Could he be the substitute?

The plot thickens when Katisha and The Mikado arrive on the scene and moments of pure panic ensue before all is set right.

You can’t beat this early foray into musical comedy – it’s pure fun from beginning to end.

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