• Venue: Wilton's Music Hall
  • Date: 4th June 2025
  • Written by: Arthur Sullivan (music) and W. S. Gilbert (libretto) - with cast additions
  • Directed by: Jeff Clarke
  • Staring: Steve Watts; Louise Crane; Matthew Scott-Clark; Kelli-Ann Masterson.
Three little girls from school...

Not Titipu as I recall it, but does that matter?

The Mikado is one of my favourite G&S shows, and Wilton’s a favourite venue and Opera della Luna a favoured company.

Of course, reducing your cast to seven does offer a challenge! So, move the setting from 19th Century Japan to a 21st Century fashion house and an English style garden – well, of course!

Apart from some chorus doubling the only real doubles were Steve Watts, playing Pish-Tush and the Mikado, and Louise Crane the ‘schoolgirl’ Peep-Bo and Katisha. This latter was the biggest ask and Crane rose to it well – assisted by a phenomenal costume in her Act 2 scenes with The Mikado and Ko-Ko (Matthew Scott-Clark actually developing that character).

Kelli-Ann Masterson (Yum-Yum) probably had the prettiest voice, but all sang acceptably well, and, perhaps more importantly, all were good comic actors.

The two patter songs (Ko-Ko’s ‘I’ve got a little list’ and the Mikado’s ‘object all sublime’) were both substantially updated and somewhat unsurprisingly the Shadwell audience was as little a fan of Elon Musk and Donald Trump as the Mikado himself.  

It's funny (it always was), it has some great G&S songs (the updating was sympathetic) and it was well performed with quite crisp comic direction.

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