Slyly updated 'Mikado' finds just the right voice

It has been seven years since the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society last produced G & S's popular masterpiece, "The Mikado," described in the program notes as "what the English of 1885 thought Japan ought to be like: an English tea party with a thin veneer of Japanese-style lacquer."

THEATER REVIEW

THE MIKADO

CREATORS: Music by Arthur Sullivan; lyrics by William S. Gilbert

WHEN: Through July 28

WHERE: Bagley Wright Theatre, Seattle Center

TICKETS: $28, with senior/student discounts, at Ticketmaster, 206-292-2787

This is a new production by producer Mike Storie and stage director Hal Ryder (newly appointed artistic director of Seattle Public Theater). This lively, funny, well-paced show hits all the usual G & S buttons, often from a fresh viewpoint.

Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir William S. Gilbert wrote for specific types, and if a company doesn't have the right performers, the show limps. Seattle G & S is fortunate to have most of them. In this "Mikado," Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum, the artless, lovesick romantic leads, are played by tenor Richard Barrett and newcomer Ariadne Votava, good singers and believable actors of the right age.

As Ko-Ko, the essential little man, veteran G & S performer Dave Ross, with his dry baritone and ability to sing patter songs so the audience can hear every word, brought the house down with his wooing of the haughty, bloodthirsty Katisha, sung by another newcomer, Alyce Rogers. Her role requires the hardest essential G & S voice to find, a wide-ranging, fruity alto. Rogers was not altogether successful vocally but turned in a fine portrayal of a vindictive woman turned to marshmallow by the little tailor, Ko-Ko.

The particular delight of this production, though, is William J. Darkow's Pooh-Bah. Darkow's acting is excellent, and he possesses a rich, dark baritone voice and clear diction. Pompous, righteous and self-admiring on one side, oily and amenable to graft on the other, his Pooh-Bah is a character you still can't help liking. Perhaps it's the twinkle that seems to lurk behind his most preposterous utterances.

Ryder's direction abounds with felicitous details and sly twists. G & S operas all have political or topical digs at society, and it's usual to make artful changes to fit prevailing custom. A despairing Nanki-Poo plans to go away to ... Denver? ... Dallas? ... Chicago!

As Yum-Yum dresses for her wedding, a tea ceremony becomes a coffee break with Seattle's Best Coffee cups in a cardboard holder and the usual coffee addict behavior. Ko-Ko's "little list" of suitable people to behead includes "Americans with chopsticks eating sushi on their knees/As if there could be anyone who'd think they're Japanese."

A few of Ryder's additions were unnecessary. There was no need to present the opera as a bedtime story told by nobleman Pish-Tush to his granddaughter. Nor was there much point in including a female martial-arts dancer, who challenges three samurai warriors as if this were a pale imitation of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Longtime music director Alan Lund, in his swan song with the society, kept the pace lively, and his well-rehearsed singers performed clearly and with confidence.

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