“...an entertaining and innovative look at one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular works.“
Graham Ford, Stagewhispers

Comes a train…

The last train to Titipu!

pre-orders are now being taken for The Mikado 2025 as DVD or download

The Mikado is an enduringly popular comic opera with memorable music, endearing characters and some of the wittiest lyrical comedy in the English language. Featuring much loved songs such as “I’ve Got A Little List” (the better known title of “As Someday it May Happen”), “A Wand’ring Minstrel I”, “Three Little Maids From School Are We”, “The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring” and many more.

Nanki-Poo loves Yum-Yum but she’s betrothed to Ko-Ko, the new Lord High Executioner. When the Mikado (or emperor) orders a beheading, Nanki-Poo and Ko-Ko try to come to an arrangement that doesn’t involve anyone losing their head! However, the arrival in town of the spurned Katisha turns everything topsy-turvy. With melodious mischief and preposterous plots, the tangled web unravels; will the punishment fit the crime?

Gilbert’s imagined Japan was enriched by a London exhibition featuring a Japanese village inhabited by 100 citizens and the European obsession with everything Japanese following its re-opening to the world. The distracting beauty of his Japanese setting allowed Gilbert to get away with poking fun at the staid social norms, absurd etiquette, and weighty bureaucracy of a colonising Victorian England.

This delightful comic opera enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe where 17 companies performed it 9,000 times within two years of its premiere in 1885. And, in 2006, the Japanese Tokyo Theatre Company presented The Mikado as part of the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in England.

Music: Sir Arthur Sullivan
Libretto: W.S. Gilbert 

Director: Andrew McGrail
Musical Director: John Ferguson

Cast
Yum-Yum – Cindy Liu
Pitti-Sing – Katherine Stewart
Peep-Bo – Hayley Jobson
Katisha – Lynlee Williams, Stephanna Betts (Stawell)
Nanki-Poo – Lachlan McIntyre
Ko-Ko – John Parncutt
Pooh-Bah – Peter Hanway, Robin Halls (Stawell)
The Mikado – Phil Elphinstone
Pish-Tush – Nick Sharman

Townspeople of Titipu
Shirin Albert, Catherine Bates, Sarah Berry, Stephanna Betts, Amy Carlin, Katerina Collier, Robbie Hannan, Susan Hurley, Emma Kathryn, Lydia Klimek, Grace Liu, Fiona McFarlane, Hannah Thorne, Jenny Wakefield, Honi Walker

Andrew Bell, Paul Cruickshank, (Robin Halls), Sam Hargreaves, Stephen Headey, Ken Knight, Philip Liberatore, Jamie Tampion, Paul Tooby, Geoffrey Urquhart

“One of Gilbert and Sullivan’s best-loved operettas…“
The Reviews Hub

“The Mikado contains many of [Gilbert and Sullivan’s] best songs and lyrics“
Bachtrack

Reviews

Graham Ford Reviews – on Facebook (screen capture)

Paul Selar – Australian Arts Review – website link (screen capture)

Jane Court – Stagewhispers.com.au – website link (screen capture)

Matthew Sheahan – thetheatre.au – website link (screen capture)

Melbourne Observer – The Local Paper – website link (screen capture)

Interviews

Director Andrew McGrail chats to Rebekah Lowe on ABC Wimmera Breakfast Radio (link)

John Parncutt, who plays Ko-Ko, talks to Showstoppers on Southern FM

Director Andrew McGrail talks to Nick Tolhurst on 3MBS FM – Direct 3MBS link

Director Andrew McGrail talks to Leanne Cutler on Southern FM’s program “Ambrosia”

Director Andrew McGrail chats to Matt Tribe on ABC Regional Radio (link)

Sentinel-Times Preview (link)

Club bookings

The Mikado is available for group bookings of 25 or more. Enquiries and booking via GSOV at tickets@gsov.org.au.

Assistance

Please contact GSOV Ticketing on 0490 465 009 or at tickets@gsov.org.au with questions about your subscription.

Questions about MPAC tickets, parking, facilities and access services please contact 9905 1111 or boxoffice@monash.edu or check https://www.monash.edu/performing-arts-centres/accessibility/