The Black Mikado
Encyclopedia
The Black Mikado is a musical comedy
, based on Gilbert and Sullivan
's The Mikado
, adapted by Janos Bajtala, George Larnyoh and Eddie Quansah from W. S. Gilbert
's original 1885 libretto and Arthur Sullivan
's score. The show premiered on 24 April 1975 at the Cambridge Theatre
in London, where it ran for 472 performances before going on a national tour. A 1976 production was mounted in Soweto
, South Africa, where it played at the Diepkloof Hall. After this, the musical was not revived.
island rather than in Japan. Sullivan's original score is rearranged into a mixture of rock, reggae
, blues and calypso
. The West End production was directed by Braham Murray
with a nearly all black cast, the exception being veteran actor Michael Denison
's Pooh-Bah, who was white and dressed in a white tropical suit and pith helmet
. The rest of the cast were dressed in what were basically African and Caribbean costumes, "some of which were made to look pseudo-Japanese", and the sets were Japanese. Pooh-Bah is an uptight English colonial official who is contrasted with the sexy, exuberant Caribbean islanders. The Three Little Maids from School arrive dressed in uniforms from their proper English school, including, elbow-length gloves and straw boaters. As they sing of their freedom from the ladies seminary, they strip off their modest clothing until they are shown in their native dress.
The cast included Patti Boulaye
(under the name Patricia Ebigwei) as Yum-Yum, Floella Benjamin
as Pitti-Sing, Michael Denison
as Pooh-Bah, Norman Beaton
as Nanki-Poo, Derek Griffiths
as Ko-Ko, Jenny McGusty as Peep-Bo, Vernon Nesbeth as Pish-Tush, Val Pringle as The Mikado and Anita Tucker as Katisha. Terry Lane wrote, "Norman Beaton was a very handsome young Nanki-Poo and Patricia Ebigwei was a heart-stoppingly beautiful Yum-Yum. The sexual tensions that are implicit in the plot were exploited to the full.... Patricia Ebigwei's version of 'The Sun Whose Rays' [is] the performance against which all others must now be judged ... a slow, erotic, languid ballad of vanity and sexual self-satisfaction that makes the conventional renditions seem prissy".
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, based on Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
, adapted by Janos Bajtala, George Larnyoh and Eddie Quansah from W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
's original 1885 libretto and Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
's score. The show premiered on 24 April 1975 at the Cambridge Theatre
Cambridge Theatre
The Cambridge Theatre is a West End theatre, on a corner site in Earlham Street facing Seven Dials, in the London Borough of Camden, built in 1929-30. It was designed by Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie; interior partly by Serge Chermayeff, with interior bronze friezes by sculptor Anthony Gibbons...
in London, where it ran for 472 performances before going on a national tour. A 1976 production was mounted in Soweto
Soweto
Soweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...
, South Africa, where it played at the Diepkloof Hall. After this, the musical was not revived.
Production details
The plot of The Black Mikado does not stray far from the Gilbert and Sullivan original, except that in the musical the action is set on a CaribbeanCaribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
island rather than in Japan. Sullivan's original score is rearranged into a mixture of rock, reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, blues and calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
. The West End production was directed by Braham Murray
Braham Murray
Braham Murray, OBE is an English theatre director. He has been an Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester since its foundation in 1976.-Early years:...
with a nearly all black cast, the exception being veteran actor Michael Denison
Michael Denison
John Michael Terence Wellesley Denison CBE was an English actor.-Background:Denison was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire in 1915. He was raised by his aunt and uncle from the age of three weeks, following the death of his mother and his estrangement from his father. He was educated at Harrow...
's Pooh-Bah, who was white and dressed in a white tropical suit and pith helmet
Pith helmet
The pith helmet is a lightweight cloth-covered helmet made of cork or pith...
. The rest of the cast were dressed in what were basically African and Caribbean costumes, "some of which were made to look pseudo-Japanese", and the sets were Japanese. Pooh-Bah is an uptight English colonial official who is contrasted with the sexy, exuberant Caribbean islanders. The Three Little Maids from School arrive dressed in uniforms from their proper English school, including, elbow-length gloves and straw boaters. As they sing of their freedom from the ladies seminary, they strip off their modest clothing until they are shown in their native dress.
The cast included Patti Boulaye
Patti Boulaye
Patti Boulaye is a British singer, actress and artist who was among the leading black British entertainers in the seventies and eighties...
(under the name Patricia Ebigwei) as Yum-Yum, Floella Benjamin
Floella Benjamin
Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin, Baroness Benjamin OBE DL is a British actress, author, television presenter, businesswoman and politician...
as Pitti-Sing, Michael Denison
Michael Denison
John Michael Terence Wellesley Denison CBE was an English actor.-Background:Denison was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire in 1915. He was raised by his aunt and uncle from the age of three weeks, following the death of his mother and his estrangement from his father. He was educated at Harrow...
as Pooh-Bah, Norman Beaton
Norman Beaton
Norman Lugard Beaton was a Guyanese actor long resident in the United Kingdom....
as Nanki-Poo, Derek Griffiths
Derek Griffiths
Derek Griffiths is a British actor who appeared in numerous British children's television series in the 1960s to 1980s and more recently has played parts in TV drama.- Career :...
as Ko-Ko, Jenny McGusty as Peep-Bo, Vernon Nesbeth as Pish-Tush, Val Pringle as The Mikado and Anita Tucker as Katisha. Terry Lane wrote, "Norman Beaton was a very handsome young Nanki-Poo and Patricia Ebigwei was a heart-stoppingly beautiful Yum-Yum. The sexual tensions that are implicit in the plot were exploited to the full.... Patricia Ebigwei's version of 'The Sun Whose Rays' [is] the performance against which all others must now be judged ... a slow, erotic, languid ballad of vanity and sexual self-satisfaction that makes the conventional renditions seem prissy".
Musical numbers
The numbers listed in the 1975 recording were as follows. The show had additional musical numbers.- 1. If you want to know who we are
- 2. A wand'ring minstrel I
- 3. Behold the Lord High Executioner
- 4. Three little maids from school
- 5. So please you Sir we much regret
- 6. The sun whose rays
- 7. Mi-ya-sa-ma mi-ya-sa-ma
- 8. A more humane Mikado
- 9. The criminal cried
- 10. The flowers that bloom
- 11. Tit willow
- 12. Alone and yet alive
See also
Earlier adaptations of The Mikado employing Black casts include:- The Swing MikadoThe Swing MikadoThe Swing Mikado is an operetta in two acts with music arranged by Gentry Warden, based on Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, The Mikado. It was first staged by an all-black company in Chicago in 1938, transferring to Broadway, and featured a setting transposed from Japan to a tropical island...
1938 - The Hot MikadoThe Hot Mikado (1939 production)The Hot Mikado was a 1939 musical theatre adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado with an African-American cast. Mike Todd originally produced it after the Federal Theatre Project turned down his offer to manage the WPA production of The Swing Mikado .The Hot Mikado was jazzier than The...
1939