STAGE REVIEW : San Diego Gilbert & Sullivan Offers a Refreshing ‘Mikado’

“As Someday It May Happen” is the song in which the Lord High Executioner in “The Mikado” gets to read off the names of all the people and things he keeps on a little list as candidates for beheading.

Traditionally, it is the place where local wits get to insert barbs at their own pet peeves.

In the current production of “The Mikado,” the San Diego Gilbert & Sullivan Company season opener at the Casa del Prado Theatre, Faberge eggs, “which appear in every country but their own,” get the knife.

Otherwise, everything is pretty much business as usual in this story in which the son of the Mikado (the leader of all Japan), masquerades as a wandering minstrel to flee Katisha, the bride he does not want. The woman he loves, Yum-Yum, is affianced to Koko, the Lord High Executioner.

Leon Natker, the new artistic director of the San Diego Gilbert & Sullivan Company, takes over the directing chores with flair and heightens the modest level of professionalism one expects from this group. Between Natker’s work and that of conductor Gary Holt, music director of the 70-voice San Diego Men’s Chorus, the chorus becomes a more integral part of the action and music than it has been in recent years.

The leads, too, are refreshingly good, with the exception of the amiable but undistinctive Rankin Fischer as Nanki-Poo. Ah, the trials of finding a strong tenor for small company productions such as these!

Natker’s direction emphasizes the real, rather than the cartoon-like, side of the characters, which makes most of them funnier. Leann Sandel, with her strong, sweet soprano, is particularly delightful as the sweet Yum-Yum who wonders if it is vanity that makes her admire herself so. She then looks in the mirror with a satisfied, adoring smile and murmurs, “No.”

The straight approach leaves something lacking in Craig Caven’s Koko, however. Caven, one of the better singers to be cast as Koko in local productions, seems too likable to deliver the snivelly, repugnant character that would cause Yum-Yum to recoil in disgust at his request for a kiss. But he brings great energy to the role, and performs respectably enough.

The rest of the cast lends solid support. Lisbeth Abramson renders Katisha, the unwanted bride, touching in her distress over not obtaining the man she loves. Todd D. Jones is all officiousness as Pooh-Bah, Lord High Everything Else, who is so proud because he can trace his ancestry back to a bit of protoplasm. Vincent Martin is fine as the proud, noble lord Pish-Tush; Suzanne Keiper, mellifluous naughtiness as Pitti-Sing, and Ed Hollingsworth, pleasant pomp and circumstance as the Mikado. Tiny Tre Blake is a charmer as the Page chasing after the Mikado as he tries to hold a parasol over the dancing monarch’s head.

J. Sherwood Montgomery’s set design is simple and effective. The hanging garlands of flowers that frame a small curving bridge in Act II are particularly picturesque and nicely lit by Ron Vodika. Cindy J. Cetinske’s costumes have colorful fun with the Japanese theme.

Those studying this production for clues as to what the rest of the San Diego Gilbert & Sullivan Company season will bring under its new artistic director won’t find ready answers--although there may be an answer in Natker’s promise of a “provocative and innovative” restaging of the “The Gondoliers” for the end of the season.

Perhaps this conservative “Mikado”--less dramatic, but better in its close attention to detail than previous efforts--is an attempt to show due respect for accustomed fare done in accustomed ways, before springing something new. Certainly, as they say in “The Mikado,” that would be a nice “how-de-do.”

‘THE MIKADO’

Words and music by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Director is Leon Natker. Conductor is Gary Holt. Sets by J. Sherwood Montgomery. Costumes by Cindy J. Cetinske. Lighting by Ron Vodika. With Leann Sandel, Rankin Fischer, Lisbeth Abramson, Ed Hollingsworth, Craig Caven, Vincent Martin, Todd D. Jones, Kellie Evans-O’Connor, Suzanne Keiper and Tre Blake. Performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday with Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $10-$16. Call (619) 231-5714. At the Casa del Prado Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego.