Characters from The Mikado include
Stephen Quint as Ko-Ko, Laurelyn
Watson Chase as Yum-Yum, Robin
Mahon as Peep Bo and Kimilee Bryant
as Pitti-Sing.

The Classic Gilbert and Sullivan comic light opera The Mikado will be on stage April 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center at Kent State University at Tuscarawas in New Philadelphia. Performed with a full orchestra, The Mikado is a stunning musical production that combines romance and comedy.

Tickets range in price from $29-45 and can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center Box Office, online at www.tusc.kent.edu/pac or by calling 330-308-6400. The box office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free parking is available for all shows.

The Mikado, or The Town of Titipu, was first performed at the Savoy Theatre, London, England, in 1885 and ran longer in its initial run than any other Gilbert and Sullivan opera. Since then, it has been filmed twice and performed in every possible style – jazzed, swung and as a ballet. This New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players’ production is in the traditional mold, combining a modern playfulness with a respect for the creators’ original intent. A full orchestra brings to life Sullivan’s own evocative orchestration and the legit singing of the company’s outstanding performers brings lushness to the vocal lines. Gilbert’s wit and always relevant barbs aimed at the foibles of human nature also receive full attention.

The location is a fictitious Japanese town full of colorful characters – three little maids from school, a wandering minstrel, a hilariously corrupt public official and a Lord High Executioner, who may have a list of potential victims but is too tenderhearted to actually perform his duties. Beautiful school girl Yum-Yum loves the romantic minstrel Nanki-Poo but is engaged to Ko-Ko the executioner. This romantic triangle takes the usual course of thwarted romance until the arrival first of the fearsome Katisha, claiming Nanki-Poo as her “perjured lover,” and later of the emperor or Mikado himself – with his own list of punishments to fit the crime. In order to resolve the ensuing complications, Ko-Ko must use his wits to convince the most unattractive Katisha to marry him – in record time. That done, all other potentially dangerous circumstances are settled by the Mikado’s all-encompassing pronouncement “nothing could possibly be more satisfactory.”