27 Nov LOOK AHEAD: The Mikado at The Charing Cross Theatre

Music – Arthur Sullivan
Libretto – W. S. Gilbert
Director – Thom Southerland
Choreographer – Joey McNeely
Musical Director – Iain Vince Gatt
Set Designer – Phil Lindley
Costume Designer – Jonathan Lipman
Lighting Designer – Mike Robertson

with
Rebecca Caine as Katisha
Mark Heenehan as The Mikado

Director Thom Southerland, who wowed critics and public alike with award-winning, sold out productions of Titanic, Parade and Mack & Mabel, is next directing a radically re-conceived version of Gilbert & Sullivan’s best-loved operetta, The Mikado.

This production of The Mikado, with a Noël Coward sensitivity and G & S’s delightful, much-loved score performed acoustically on two baby grand pianos, is a Hobson’s Choice-inspired take on The Mikado. Set in the Titipu Umbrella and Fan Factory owned by The Mikado, all the familiar characters and songs remain intact, including Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo, and Pitti-Sing, who sing the classic “Three little maids from school are we”, as workers in the department providing fans for local schools.

The Mikado, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, was their ninth of 14 operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in the West End, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, which was the second longest run for any work of musical theatre and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time. By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera. The Mikado remains one of the most frequently played musical theatre pieces in history.

The rest of the cast are: Matthew Crowe, Leigh Coggins, Hugh Osborne, Steve Watts, Jacob Chapman, Sophie Rohan, Cassandra McCowan, Alyssa Martin, Kayleigh McKnight, Andrew Dovatston, Josh Wylie, Zac Wancke, George Tebbutt.

Dates: Thursday 27 November 2014 – Saturday 3 January 2015.
Venue: Charing Cross Theatre
Tickets and information: charingcrosstheatre.co.uk