Word: nanki
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...leads in this production were peculiarly excellent. Karl D'Challa Deirup seemed at first just a bit too mature as the callow youth, Nanki-Poo, but his first song ( A wandering minstrel I/a thing of shreds and patches... ) established Nanki-Poo as a totally different character from that of the traditional interpretations. Alan Abrams, as Pooh-Bah, the Lord High Everything Else, was marvelous as the proud but corrupt political hack. But the undisputed star of the show was Josh Rubins, as Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner. Following the opulent train of reverent courtiers, he wore a ludicrous robe...
...rest of the cast, at least through the first act, supported these two quite well. Michael Campbell as Nanki-poo and Deborah Strong as Yum-yum made clear voiced, well coordinated lovers, and Nancy Sproul's contralto Katisha was vibrant, if somewhat unintelligible when she didn't face the audience. Although the women's chorus was weak, they were offset by an orchestra that finished splendidly. The pace was much too slow in the second act--perhaps because everyone was a little tired from the fun that preceded...
Musically, most of the lustre came from the romantic lead, Vivian Thomas as Yum-Yum, and Benjamin Cox's Nanki-Poo. Miss Thomas bounces onto the stage with her disarming freshness and charm and an outstandingly lovely voice. Cox has just the right voice for this part, and knows how to use it, although last night he sounded a little constrained. The two of them made a very attractive pair, if slightly too all-American for their British pronunciation...
...Nanki-Poo Presley. A sometime contralto in G. & S. amateur productions, Petitioner Alderley was badly shaken four years ago to learn that the British copyright on W. S. Gilbert's lyrics would expire in 1961 (the copyright on Sullivan's music lapsed in 1950). She promptly withdrew to her little Oxford bedsitting room, and for ten hours each day sat scrawling appeals to Gilbert & Sullivan fans the world over, requesting their signatures for the petition she was preparing for Parliament. Seared into her mind were reported visions of Mike Todd's Hot Mikado with Katisha...
...desecration, as Miss Alderley envisioned them, were endless: Frank Sinatra as the defendant in Trial by Jury, charged with stealing a pizza pie; The Gondoliers remade into The Road to Venice, with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. It was even suggested to Dorothy Alderley that Elvis Presley might play Nanki-Poo. Snapped she: "I'd Nanki-Poo him if I could get my hands...