Wright State stages ‘Hot Mikado’

Excerpt

Wright State University’s 40th anniversary season continues Thursday, Oct. 23 with its opening of the rarely staged, dance-heavy musical “The Hot Mikado,” a swinging 1940s jazz and blues twist on the classic 1885 Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera “The Mikado.”

“The Hot Mikado” originally premiered in 1939 at New York’s Broadhurst Theatre and was revived in 1986 at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. by orchestrator/arranger Rob Bowman and lyricist/librettist David Bell. Set in the city of Titipu, the story concerns Nanki-Poo, son of the mighty Mikado and heir to the throne, and his true love Yum-Yum. However, Yum-Yum is engaged to Ko-Ko who has been appointed to be the new Lord High Executioner. This love triangle grows more complex when Ko-Ko makes a deal with Nanki-Poo that tests the depths of his love for Yum-Yum.

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