A quite good attempt to bring Gilbert and Sullivan up-to-date without doing too much violence to the original. The music, as I recall, seems more-or-less unchanged. The words though have been modernized in many spots as is customary, particularly in the songs of Ko-Ko, Pooh-Bah and the Mikado. Several of these references have to be unintelligible to non-Australians and even Australians below a certain age.
Gilbert and Sullivan's standard older woman and comic villain Katisha (Heather Begg) dragged some of the time but, since this is from a live performance, this may be forgiven. And Anne Maree McDonald was satisfactory as Yum-Yum. Some of her singing is comparatively inaudible, maybe because of what the other reviewer mentions: that the audio is not picked up well when an actor-singer is out of range.
Peter Cousens (Nanki-Poo) was not entirely convincing as a Gilbert and Sullivan juvenile and Graeme Ewer (Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner) perhaps reminded me too much of the American comic character actor Marvin Kaplan, But they were otherwise both quite good as were the other men. There are various mistakes as is to be expected in a live performance.
Clever use is made of the imitation Japanese vases in which characters appear, disappear and play many scenes in. I'm not sure I particularly like the costumes for the men which look like ornate bathrobes. And Cousens looks like he is wearing eye mascara rather than Japanese eye makeup.
The comedy was over-the-top as usual but I think along the right lines.
The DVD had no extra features that I could see. If there were subtitles, I couldn't find them and I think subtitles were often needed.
Gilbert and Sullivan's standard older woman and comic villain Katisha (Heather Begg) dragged some of the time but, since this is from a live performance, this may be forgiven. And Anne Maree McDonald was satisfactory as Yum-Yum. Some of her singing is comparatively inaudible, maybe because of what the other reviewer mentions: that the audio is not picked up well when an actor-singer is out of range.
Peter Cousens (Nanki-Poo) was not entirely convincing as a Gilbert and Sullivan juvenile and Graeme Ewer (Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner) perhaps reminded me too much of the American comic character actor Marvin Kaplan, But they were otherwise both quite good as were the other men. There are various mistakes as is to be expected in a live performance.
Clever use is made of the imitation Japanese vases in which characters appear, disappear and play many scenes in. I'm not sure I particularly like the costumes for the men which look like ornate bathrobes. And Cousens looks like he is wearing eye mascara rather than Japanese eye makeup.
The comedy was over-the-top as usual but I think along the right lines.
The DVD had no extra features that I could see. If there were subtitles, I couldn't find them and I think subtitles were often needed.