The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players (NYGASP) production of The Mikado performs at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College on Friday, October 23 at 7:00 PM, Saturday, October 24 at 1:30 and 7:00 PM and Sunday, October 25 at 3:00 PM. Original choreography and direction is by David Auxier-Loyola, who also authored the show’s new prologue.
The Mikado, full of absurdity and wit, first performed at London’s Savoy Theatre in 1885, pokes fun at topical aspects of Victorian society, but Gilbert & Sullivan cleverly cloak their satirical barbs behind a charming love story set in an imagined town in Japan, and NYGASP continues the time-honored tradition of topical updating for a modern audience. You’re sure to recognize someone on the “Lord High Executioner’s” comical list of people who “never would be missed.”
The romantic love story follows Nanki-Poo, the son of the Mikado (the Japanese emperor), who has fled his father’s court in disguise as a “Wand’ring Minstrel” to avoid marrying Katisha, an elderly suitor, and to find and marry his own beloved, the delicious maiden Yum-Yum, one of “Three Little Maids From School.” Yum-Yum, however, is the ward of Ko-Ko, the “Lord High Executioner” and has become betrothed to him against her will. As usual in a Gilbert & Sullivan plot, the tangled web unravels and everyone (well, almost everyone) lives happily ever after.
Tickets start at $40. For information on all shows and to purchase tickets please visit nygasp.org
