BHOS's production of Gilbert & Sullivan's / Bell & Bowman's

Hot Mikado

16th to 20th November 1999 - Martlets Hall, Burgess Hill

Review

A Brassy Mikado The show opens rather like West Side Story with a threatening male chorus prepared for action. But when the guys go for their weapons they pull fans out of their pockets not knives and snap them open. The scene outside Pooze Bar in downtown Titipu, plus the 1940s costumes, might smack of the New York of Guys and Dolls but what we are into here is The Hot Mikado, the Gilbert and Sullivan update revived with elan by Burgess Hill Operatic Society. Purists devoted to the Savoy operas may have shuddered at this brash version but if we can have a Mafia Rigoletto and a Magic Flute set on an American freeway why not a hot jazzy Mikado with a big band sound?

In the outcome, it proved remarkably faitful to the original and who knows Suzi Allen's zappy vividly choreographed production may well have attracted a new audience to Gilbert and Sullivan.

On balance I thought Sullivan came out of it a good deal better than Gilbert. This music is pretty well indestructable and the Titipu Big Band under the direction of that cool cat Andrew Sutton gave it an admirable hot brassy interpretation.

The Merry Madrigal suddenly changed tempo to become a slick scat number, bubbling and in the mood; Three Little Maids was vintage Andrews Sisters; The Sun and I, strongly sung by Becki Bowden's striking Yum-Yum, an affecting blues ballad.

Mike McKenzie also found the right musical note for Nanki-Poo, Rachel Brittain's Petti Sing sounded the note of a true jazz singer in the making, and Duncan Taylor making a remarkable entrance to a display of fireworks had vocal presence for the Mikado.

But it was Cherry Woodhouse's Katisha who stole the show and who was best able to integrate the musical and comedy styles. It was well nigh impossible to resist her delicious vamp or her deftly modulated renditions of The Hour of Gladness and Alone and Yet Alive.

Much as I admired Bill Kirwan's Ko-Ko, an impersonation of Phil Silvers, and Simon Russell's able jack-of-all-trades Pooh Bah, the comdey seemed a little stilted at times (despite the contemporary references) and fell a bit flat.

This did not short-circuit a high voltage show which crackled along in its rousing chorus numbers and ballads. As the girls' stocking suspenders (a vital period detail) helped show there was no shortage here of sensuous vitality.

Mark Gale.
This review appeared in The Mid Sussex Times on 25th November 1999.