Earlier this year we profiled Josh Shaw and Pacific Opera Project when they did a new adaptation of Madama Butterfly. This week their wildly inventive production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado opens at the Highland Park Ebell Club for a run that continues through August 31st.
What Pacific Opera Project does so effectively is take well-established operas and find a new and/or contemporary spin on the work. This revival of The Mikado features colorful costumes and sets that seem right out of contemporary Tokyo. The lyrics have been written to, in the spirit of the original, poke fun at and comment on the people and issues of our time.
Shaw is the director and the designer of The Mikado. Parisa Zaeri is the music director.
The cast of The Mikado includes E. Scott Levin (Ko-Ko), Phil Meyer (Pooh-bah), Charlie Kim (Nanki-poo), Janet Todd (Yum-Yum), Abbe Drake (Pitty-Sing), Tiffany Ho (Peep-Bo), Adelaide Sinclair (Katisha), William Vallandingham (Pish) and Benjamin Howard (Tush.)
There is traditional seating and table seating with the option at the tables to also get food and wine.
For tickets go here. As of press deadline, the first weekend is nearly sold out with tickets having sold briskly for the subsequent weekends.
Update: Pacific Opera Project just announced that they will live stream this Saturday’s matinee performance. You can watch it on POP’s Facebook page or their YouTube Channel
Photo courtesy of Pacific Opera Project.