STAGE REVIEW : ‘THE MIKADO’ IS AN AGELESS TREASURE

It is easy to see why “The Mikado,” the ninth of Gilbert & Sullivan’s 14 collaborations, is still their most popular comic opera. Some of their other works have outmoded targets (“Princess Ida” burlesques women’s education and “Patience,” but pre-Raphaelite aesthetes), “The Mikado” skewers the absurdities of bureaucratic excess.

Though it is not necessary for Gilbert & Sullivan operas to be socially relevant to be funny, finding relevance in them is rather like finding out that there’s a bit of protein packed in your plum pudding.

Of course, featuring some of the most memorable songs in the Gilbert & Sullivan canon, including “Three Little Maids From School,” “I’ve Got a Little List” and “Tit Willow,” doesn’t hurt either.

San Diego’s Gilbert & Sullivan Company takes “The Mikado,” a fantastically plotted story of two lovers trying to find their way to each other through a maze of restrictive laws in ancient Japan, and stirs a pleasurable bit of something extra into their high-spirited version, now playing at the Casa del Prado Theatre in Balboa Park through April 5.

They throw in a few contemporary allusions, lending this old favorite the occasional, welcome spice of surprise.

At the start of the production, Nanki-Poo, the only son of the Mikado--the emperor of Japan-- has been engaged against his will to a very determined and unattractive woman named Katisha.

To escape his marriage, he disguises himself as a second trombone player in a city band. There he meets and falls in love with a young woman named Yum-Yum. Yum-Yum falls for him too, but she is betrothed to her guardian, Ko Ko.

Meanwhile, Ko Ko is having his own problems. He is the newly appointed Lord High Executioner and has recently received a directive from the Mikado that unless he executes someone within the month, his post will be abolished.

But who is he to execute? Though early in the show he sings of “a little list” he has of people who “never would be missed” (in which he includes up-to-date references to “TV evangelists” and “forgetful politicians of a geriatric kind”). But when it comes down to it, the soft-hearted Ko Ko really doesn’t have the heart to execute anyone.

Of course, there must be a plan.

The plot begins to twist in complicated curlicues as Ko Ko, abetted by his cheerfully corrupt assistant, Pooh-Bah (the Lord High Everything Else, who has appointed himself to all the main public posts--and salaries--in the city), helps him devise a plan that involves getting Nanki-Poo to volunteer as the executioner’s victim in exchange for a month’s marriage with Ko Ko’s intended.

Happily, though, Fortuna spins a few more times, and though nothing turns out as it was meant to, everything turns out as it should.

The orchestra, under the guidance of Hollace Koman, the Gilbert & Sullivan Company’s artistic director, is delightfully on target. Not all of the singers have the strongest of voices--Alice Hathaway McMasters as Yum-Yum and Michael Darcy as Pooh-Bah set vocal and comedic standards that the rest can’t quite follow. McMasters is as pretty and funny a Yum-Yum as could be wished and she has a siren of a voice, surprisingly powerful for her delicate build. Darcy, with his full, florid face and highly mobile eyebrows, is commanding as the proud man who was “born sneering.”

But even the weaker vocalists are strong enough to deliver elegant harmonies. James C. Manley’s direction brings out the best in what the cast does have to offer, which is considerable.

George Weinberg-Harter is such a funny Ko Ko that one hardly minds a certain lack in projection. Michael Cox as Nanki-Poo has more of a pleasant than distinctive voice, but he draws out all the humor in this ingenuous, if not too bright, portrait of the classic Prince Charming.

Cathy Newman is a lovely Pitti-Sing, and John Polhamus a solid Mikado. Marion Davidson has some nice moments as Katisha but disappoints by failing to clearly enunciate and thereby loses some of Gilbert’s lyrics--something Gilbert himself was famous for not tolerating.

The chorus is vocally strong and sure, but would have benefited from more harmony in their facial and physical mannerisms. N. Dixon Fish’s set design features an artful use of moving partitions, managed by black-robed stagehands. Unfortunately, at times these stagehands distract by being seen, from certain angles, moving the props during the songs.

Cindy J. Cetinske’s costumes run a colorfully lush gamut of peaches and limes and lavenders. Tim Reeve’s lighting shows them to fine advantage.

“The Mikado” celebrated its 102nd birthday March 14. This still-appealing confection deserves many happy returns.

“THE MIKADO”

Music by Sir Arthur S. Sullivan and words by W.S. Gilbert. Director is James C. Manley. Musical director is Hollace C. Koman. Costumes by Cindy J. Cetinske. Sets by N. Dixon Fish. Lighting by Tim Reeve. With Michael Cox, Don Schloeder, Joseph Grienenberger, Michael Darcy, George Weinberg-Harter, Alice Hathaway McMasters, Patricia Minton Smith, Cathy Newman, Marion Davidson, John Polhamus, Susan Abernethy-Canfield, Jim Brescia, Marco di Orsini, Greg Felton, Dick Gray, Cathy Hansen, Kim Lindley, Shirley Roy, Bryan K. Schmidtberger, Zandee Toovey, Tony Acevedo, Lynda Sue Carey, Grant Taylor Feay, Rankin Fisher, William Griebner, Donna Hill, Tamara E. May, Don Schloeder, Seanne Staley, Lori Zemlick, Lynda Sue Carey, Steve Fenwick and Deborah Kleid. At 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday through April 5 at the Casa del Prado Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego.