Word: yamakawa
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Dates: during 1997-1997
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...Mikado of all Japan, has fled his father's court in the face of his upcoming nuptials to Katisha (Tuesday Rupp), a ferocious elderly noblewoman. While disguised as a wandering minstrel, Nanki-Poo has met and fallen in love with the delicious Yum-Yum (Caline Yamakawa)--but their amours were frustrated by the fact that the tailor Ko-Ko (Paul D. Siemens '98), the guardian of Yum-Yum and her sisters, planned to marry the girl himself. As the play opens, Nanki-Poo has returned to Yum-Yum's town of Titipu after hearing that Ko-Ko has been sentenced...
...might easily have been allowed to ride on the abilities of a few, letting mediocrity slide by around the edges. Fortunately, that isn't an issue here; each of the central players demonstrate a startlingly high level of energy. As the young romantic protagonists Yum-Yum and Nanki-Poo, Yamakawa and Shuman are thoroughly engaging, projecting the strange blend of world-wisdom and innocence that make Gilbert and Sullivan's heroes so appealing--by the time he's finished his introductory song, "A Wandering Minstrel I," Shuman has won us over. Siemens's Ko-Ko is thoroughly annoying and amusing...
...actually sing. The majority of the cast deliver their "patter songs"--the quick-paced, witty recitatives that are the trademark of Gilbert and Sullivan operetta--with careful articulation of the words. This allows viewers who aren't familiar with the play to follow the plot and understand the jokes. Yamakawa and Rupp are more conventionally operatic singers. Yamakawa's solos are lovely, and the music occasionally surprises with its beauty, as in the grief-colored "merry madrigal" near the beginning...
...sheer genius, into a hyper-modernized version of the Japanese schoolgirl: the archetype found ubiquitously in the cartoons (anime) which permeate Japanese popular culture. Decked out in characteristic anime schoolgirl uniforms--white blouses, hot pink neckties, suggestively tiny pleated skirts and hair in brilliant colors found nowhere in nature (Yamakawa's bright-blue bob must be seen to be believed)--the "little maids" combine in equal parts dizzy flirtatiousness, wide-eyed innocence and a hyper-sexualized tendency to vamp. The comedic effect, when contrasted with the stiffly suited business executives of the male chorus, is dazzling, and the introduction...