Today I go to Annapolis where the Annapolis Opera has engaged me to do a presentation for its members on “Gilbert & Sullivan in America” in advance of the company’s production of “The Pirates of Penzance” two weeks from now. By pure coincidence, D.C.’s prestigious regional theater Arena Stage is hosting a production of “Makado,” a parody of the Victorian pair’s greatest work “The Mikado.”
To say the thing is witless and a vile blight on culture, intelligence, and one of the greatest entertainment repertoires in the English language would be to engage in criminal understatement. At a full 2.5 hours, a group of talented singers do relative justice to Sullivan’s melodies while emitting pointlessly and incompetently re-written lyrics. In between the songs is dialogue that either quotes Gilbert’s original libretto out of sync with what passes for the “plot,” or injects what the brainless—but woke!—adapters think is hilarious. (The mostly puzzled audience seldom agreed.)
“Makado” is an acronym for “Make America Kingly, Do!” Yet there is literally not a single reference in the new lyrics or the dialogue that makes a satiric observation relating to the title. The role of Ko-Ko in the show is a Donald Trump imitator, who announces the parody version of the famous “Little List”song as “The Lord High Retributioner.” That’s not bad, except that Ko-Ko isn’t the “king” either in the original or in this abortion. That would be the Mikado, you know, the Emperor of Japan, and the character arrives and behaves like the despot he is. The role is also played by a woman despite the Mikado’s iconic “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” solo being written for a bass-baritone and sounding awful in the soloist’s mush-mouthed contralto.
The level of humor in the show is exemplified by the lead female character of Yum-Yum being called “Num-Num.” The original’s opening chorus (“If you want to know who we are, we are gentlemen of Japan”) is now sung by a chorus of two characters, and they are “billionaires of Japan.”
As is so often the case with adapted and even straight productions of G&S shows, the director and collaborators didn’t do their homework, don’t understand the genre, don’t respect their betters, and delude themselves into thinking they can improve the originals that have endured for over a century for good reason. The Savoy Operas are in the public domain and have been for decades, so, like Will Shakespeare’s canon , they suffer this abuse frequently. This pathetic attempt, however, is so incompetent and odoriferous that it could only be tolerated by Trump Deranged hysterics who would applaud a musical version “My Mother the Car” as long as someone sang a song called “Trump is a Poopy-Head.” That the renowned Arena Stage would agree to let its name be sullied by association with such amateurish junk nicely illustrates how bonkers the Distict’s elite have become.
I an hoping Annapolis is a bit better.
EA has four posts about “The Mikado” and progressive politics (Full Disclosure: I have played Ko-Ko twice and directed the show once). You can find them here.
