The Mikado(1987)

Operetta, Musical

The Mikado is Jonathan Miller's inventive staging of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, filmed during its English National Opera run. Miller relocates the action to a 1920s British seaside resort, transforming the traditional Japanese setting into a world of cartoon-like British aristocrats and absurdist humor. Gentlemen dressed for Ascot sing in Japanese; peers masquerade as courtiers in this deliberately confused landscape. The satire sharpens considerably when filtered through Englishness rather than exoticism, and the occasional non sequiturs land with loony charm. Miller's black-and-white production design is crisp and smart, though the 1920s setting functions more as visual framework than narrative necessity. The result is a playful deconstruction of Gilbert and Sullivan's own fantastical Japan, proving that the opera's satire works just as well when turned inward.