Information

Show Credits: Book and Lyrics Adapted by David H. Bell
Music Adapted and Arranged by Rob Bowman

Description: East meets West head-on in this hilarious 1940's-style update of a Gilbert and Sullivan favorite. Featuring an intoxicating mix of styles and influences, classics such as "A Wand'ring Minstrel I" and "Three Little Maids" are transmuted into show-stopping blues, swing, hot gospel numbers and scorching torch songs.  Find out what happens when the clean lines and color of Japanese design combine with the big band sights and sounds of popular American song and dance!

HOT MIKADO is an excellent showcase for a culturally diverse cast. The music is stacked with stellar vocal arrangements, pulsing rhythm, and music that makes you and your audience want to get up and dance!

Insight from the experts Staging Tip: This musical was constructed to use two different visual worlds - the clean lines and colour of Japanese design with the style and silhoutte of American fashion in the 1940's.

The set employs Japanese architecture executed in the textures of "The Cotton Club" (neon, brass mahogany) - while the costumes reflect the style of America in the 1940's (zoot suits, snoods, wedgies and felt hats), they are executed in the colorful silk kimono textures of Japan.

The casting is intended to be inter-racial, with the MIKADO, KATISHA and POOH-BAH specifically singing in African-America musical styles. Although the score uses the 1940's popular musical harmonies and arrangements as a point of departure, it is intended to embrace a wide range of styles including gospel, blues, rock and swing. The dance, too, uses the Lindy Hop and other 1940's dances as a point of departure, but the dancing should maximize the abilities of the performers.