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Original
Director
Jonathan
Miller
Revival
Director
David Ritch
Set
Designer
Stefanos
Lazaridis
Costume
Designer
Sue Blane
Conductor
Wyn Davies
The
Mikado
Richard Angas
Nanki-Poo
Robert Murray
Ko-Ko
Richard Suart
Pooh-Bah
Graeme Danby
Yum-Yum
Sarah Tynan
Katisha
Frances McCafferty
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The London Coliseum
2 Feb - 4 March 2008
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Jonathan
Miller's enduring and oft-revived
production of The
Mikado
for the E.N.O will never see
21 again, and it pains me
to say that it may have outgrown
its audience. Like a legendary
diva loath to retire, this
expostion of Gilbert & Sullivan's
evergreen crowd-pleaser is
showing its age - along with
many of the cast. Alas, some
members of the chorus looked
decidedly super-annuated in
their youthful roles. Die-hard
fans need not necessarily
panic, because the score (conducted
competently by Wyn Davies,
to be replaced later in this
run by Martin Fitzpatrick)
is as engaging and tuneful
as ever - there is just nothing
refreshing or exceptional
about its interpretation.
Indeed, some of the singing,
dancing and clowning veered
dangerously towards pastiche.
Camper, clumsier and shriller
than I recall from my last
appraisal two years ago, it
barely roused a morose David
Mellor (sitting alongside)
but perhaps that was more
to do with his failed attempt
to land a plum Southwark job,
than anything the Coliseum
could offer that night.
In spite of this, I am delighted
to report, that Richard Suart's
Ko-Ko, Lord High Executioner
and guardian of a captivating
ward (Sarah Tynan, ably reprising
school-girl Yum-Yum) is better
than ever, and his time-honed
performance - hackneyed adage
aside - is arguably worth
the price of admission alone.
Thank heavens, caricature
Ko-Ko carries the show, and
Suart inhabits the part (in
all its glorious nonsensicality)
with practiced ease. Once
again, his scene-stealing
rendition of 'I've got a little
list (of society offenders)
has the house in stitches
with encyclopaedic tabloid
cross-reference (Cole, Conway,
Branson and Burrell were named,
shamed and hung out to dry
along with Facebook and poor
Marks & Spencer.) At the same
time (in common parlance)
'love-rival' Nanki-Poo, the
wandering minstrel/crown prince,
is less satisfactory as portrayed
by Robert Murray, whose projection
lacks the sweet timbre of
one predecessor, Keith Jameson.
Girlish Murray rises half-heartedly
to the occasion, paired with
an elderly, deluded inamorata,
Katisha (Frances McCafferty)
who, spurned in favour of
Yum-Yum eventually ensnares
Ko-Ko. Regretably, McCafferty
is also outshone by memories
of Felicity Palmer's signature
interpretation. Coloratura
aside, her turn as a twilight
femme fatale is unconvincing.
Graeme Danby's Pooh-Bah, Lord
High Everything Else, is adequate
but colourless. Doughty, fat-suited
Richard Angas recalls heydays
as the omnipotent Mikado;
but seemed a tad subdued opposed
to yesteryear's triumphs.
Complementing the familiar
Busby Barclay-style staging;
monochrome aesthetics of set
and costumes are still striking
but the props have faded,
and frayed jazz- age costumes
indicate their age. This deco-derived
mis-en-scene is also limited
(as noted in an earlier review)
by its omnipresence in both
acts - an economy which has
surely outworn two decades'
usage. In essence, the company's
talismanic Mikado
needs a shot in the arm: either
in the shape of uniformly
superior casting, or revised
visual material - anything
less will constitute an unhappy
compromise of imperial proportion.
Caoline
Kellett Fraysse |
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