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The Mikado
 What could one possibly write about 'The Mikado' which hasn't already been written? More to the point, what new 'twist' could an Australian production put upon this most loved of the Gilbert & Sullivan music hall spectaculars which hasn't already been tried? By my reckoning, 'The Mikado' comes a very close second to 'The Pirates Of Penzance' in the popularity stakes, but even I concede it's a close run thing, and when we open our discussion on this very point, both Julie Anthony (as Katisha) and Helen Donaldson are fulsome in their praise. Well, you might expect that, since they're in it, and have a chance to renew friendships with a return season for the show, something they thought might not happen.
"A lot of people have seen a bad one, I've found," says Helen Donaldson (Yum Yum), considering the number of Gilbert & Sullivan performances mounted around the country in any given year. Anthony seems a little less keen to add her voice to that opinion. "But we cannot tell you how different this is," Donaldson chimes.
'You're going to have to try', I prompt, and Anthony picks up the cudgels.
"You know it's often done to a template?" she enquires. "Well, Simon had no intention of following that template at all. He's been very diligent in taking it right over there," and she throws an arm out sideways in suitably theatrical style. "With David Collins and Colin Lane, and Graeme Isaako from 'So You Think You Can Dance', so they've brought it right into the contemporary. For those who know their G & S, Lane plays Pooh-Bah, and Collins is the Lord High Executioner Ko-Ko.
"You've got to have a sense of history about G & S, they were sort of Monty Python's of their day, a very outrageous pair," says Julie Anthony, cementing her point.
Put the new production in the hands of the wildly successful Simon Gallaher, who seems to have a pretty good understanding of what Australian audiences want from their Gilbert & Sullivan, and you're well on the way to having a successful show which can establish box office records around the country. Even so, I blanched at the thought of comedian Colin Lane (yeah, that's Lano of Lano & Woodley fame) running riot onstage, doing that chicken-neck gawk he seems to have developed as his stock-in-trade expression.
"We use that as well," says Donaldson. "Those comedic moments are all there, and we're very faithful to the music and the action, but using all updates topics and references. It's very topical.
"David [Collins] really is all over the stage... Anthony jumps in: "He uses exactly what he used in the Umbilical Brothers, then all of a sudden there's 'squack squack' from the back of the stage..." The two dissolve into fits of laughter.
'You sound like you're okay with all this' I say as an aside to Anthony, who I'd rather thought might be somewhat less than impressed by such tomfoolery.
"Oh, I love it. Absolutely adore it!" she gushes.
One thing which seems clear is that this production of 'The Mikado' returns the production to the level of the original music hall, where the audience is very much involved in the action as it unfolds, rather than being a remote force sitting and silently watching a stage. It may not quite be the 'bear pit' but there are times... "They're drawing them in all night, those two," suggests Anthony of Lane and Collins. "They're very brave, and absolutely fearless, all night... they really put themselves out there."
"And they work very well together even though they're totally different as comedians and performers."
'Why are you talking about them so much?' I ask.
"Because we like them so much," comes the retort, in stereo. "They're pivotal. If they don't work then we don't work," observes Anthony thoughtfully. "We could turn ourselves in knots, but if Ko-Ko, who carries the show, doesn't work, then it's all to no avail."
What I did find amazing was that Julie Anthony had never before performed in a G & S production, though Donaldson is an old hand, having cut her teeth on it. Somehow, Anthony just seemed to be busy elsewhere. Really?
"Yep, total new chum here!
"The characters they've created, the way it's all been done, makes it just exhausting for the audience as well as us. The trick is to keep it pure and faithful to the original intent, and we don't play around with that."
Alex Wheaton
'The Mikado' plays in the Festival Theatre from Fri 9 Jan.
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