Cypress College’s ‘Mikado’ Hits the G&S; Goofiness Just Right

“The Mikado” is probably the ideal Gilbert and Sullivan operetta for college theater groups, straddling as it does both the classical and the outright goofy.

Cypress College’s theater and dance department has taken this to heart in a revival, care of director Diana Polsky, that may overstay its welcome but is generally bubbly, precise and calibrated to please in most of the right places.

Do we need to summarize Gilbert’s absolutely loopy plot? Probably, since “The Mikado” is a rare sight onstage anymore, perhaps out of fear of its comic-book-like characterization of 19th century Japanese.

Wandering musician Nanki-Poo is on the lam from his father, the potentate Mikado, and fleeing the wooing of the aged, ugly Katisha. But in his quest to regain the lost love of Yum-Yum, Nanki-Poo finds her in the town of Titipu engaged to Ko-Ko, the new Lord High Executioner. Despairing, Nanki-Poo wants to die, and Ko-Ko is ordered by the Mikado to execute someone before the end of the month, or else he’ll be the one executed. The eventual deal made by Ko-Ko and Nanki-Poo is right up there with the all-time twists in black comedy plots.

That’s only Act 1, which leads to an eventual happy ending that is beyond the wildest variations on Shakespearean comic silliness. By plot and character names alone, Gilbert and Sullivan announce that nothing is to be taken seriously in a world where an executioner can sing about a tit-willow while fluttering his arms.

The presentation’s the thing, and Polsky has clearly instilled the right G&S; attitude (so antique at times that it feels like 1,000, not 100, years old) in her students. They’re led by the sterling example of Sean K. Estipona, who not only delivers Nanki-Poo’s declarative songs in a sweet, engaging tenor, but makes a charming, short-statured physical match for Emily Poletick’s Yum-Yum. Frederick Crisafulli’s Ko-Ko is a large-statured contrast, full of fine comic bluster and a solid bass voice, and even convinces that he can pair up with Katisha, played with operatic intensity by Cynthia Navarro.

Poletick struggles on her demanding solo, “The Sun, Whose Rays Are All Ablaze,” but she fills in beautifully on this operetta’s many four-part harmony songs, quoting equally from the songbooks of Mozart and Handel. (G&S; always stole from the best.) It is part of “The Mikado’s” curious texture that such an absurd story is wedded to one of Sullivan’s most mellifluous scores.

Polsky and musical director Bobby Nafarrete’s game orchestra vigorously support the score, except in the case of the stumbling, ill-tuned chorus of Titipu schoolgirls. Alas, stand-in Julio Nunez (replacing Stephan Ross) as the Mikado was simply under-rehearsed at Sunday’s matinee.

Graced by a minimalist set that has the feeling of rice paper by Barbara Braden Meyer, Kaye Ragland Vergona’s fluid choreography and Liz Pelster’s lush, ambitious costumes, this is a “Mikado” that fills the vacuum left by professional companies, which, for whatever reason, continue to shy away from this lighter-than-air masterpiece.

BE THERE

“The Mikado,” Cypress College Campus Theatre, 9200 Valley View St. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 3 p.m. Ends Sunday. $9-$10. (714) 821-6320. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.