HOT MIKADO

Education Pack

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Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................3

The Musical: a history ...............................................................................................4

Famous Musicals: A Selective Chronology........................................................6

Hot Mikado: a history ...............................................................................................8

Kabuki ........................................................................................................................10

Interview with Diego Pitarch................................................................................13

Interview with Sarah Travis ...................................................................................15

Credits ........................................................................................................................16

This Education Pack was designed & written by Beth Flintoff, with additional material by Matthew Dewsbury and Nick Hobbes . Photographs by Robert Day

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Introduction

This pack has been designed to complement your visit to see Hot Mikado at The Watermill Theatre and on tour. Most of the pack is aimed at drama students and anyone with an interest in the subjects raised by the play. While there are some images, the pack has been deliberately kept simple from a graphic point of view so that most pages can easily be photocopied for use in the classroom. Your feedback is most welcome, please email any comments you have to outreach@watermill.org.uk. I hope you find the pack useful. Beth Flintoff Deputy Outreach Director The Watermill Theatre Bagnor, Newbury, Berks RG20 8AE www.watermill.org.uk

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The Musical: an

introduction Musical theatre in Europe dates back to the theatre of the ancient Greeks, who included music and dance in their stage comedies and tragedies in the 5th century BC. The Romans introduced technical innovations.

For example, to make the dance steps more audible in large open air theatres, Roman actors attached metal chips called "sabilla" to their stage footwear – the first tap shoes.

By the Middle Ages, theatre in Europe consisted mostly of travelling minstrels and small performing troupes of performers singing and offering slapstick comedy.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, religious dramas, such as The Play of Herod and The Play of Daniel taught the liturgy, set to church chants. Later, ‘Mystery Plays’ were created that told a biblical story in a sequence of entertaining parts. These plays developed into an autonomous form of musical theatre, with poetic forms sometimes alternating with the prose dialogues and liturgical chants.

The three main components of a musical are the music, the lyrics, and the book. The book of a musical refers to the story of the show – in effect its spoken (not sung) lines; however, "book" can also refer to the dialogue and lyrics together, which are sometimes referred to (as in opera) as the ‘libretto’(Italian for “little book”). The music and lyrics together form the score of the musical. The interpretation of the musical by the creative team heavily influences the way that the musical is presented. The creative team includes a director, musical director, and usually a choreographer (in this case, Craig Revel Horwood is both director and choreographer). A musical may be built around four to six main theme tunes that are reprised throughout the show, or consist of a series of songs not directly musically related. Spoken dialogue is generally interspersed between musical numbers, although the use of "sung dialogue" or recitative is not unknown, especially in so-called "sung-through" musicals such as Les Misérables and Evita.

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Actor-Musician Musicals "Actor-musicianship" is the term that's

used in the U.K. for a sort of shorthand. I think it's a multi-skilled way of telling a story — it should

probably be called "all hands on deck."

John Doyle, Associate Director, The Watermill Theatre

Actor/musician work (in which the actors provide the orchestra as well as the singing, acting and dancing) really began to establish itself at The Watermill from 1998 with Cabaret. The style was pioneered by the director John Doyle and musical director Sarah Travis. The work has attracted critical acclaim and national awards. Three productions have transferred to

London. Sweeney Todd ran for six-months at the Trafalgar Studios and then the New Ambassadors Theatre. It opened on Broadway in 2005 with an American cast and won two prestigious Tony Awards. The concept of actor-musician productions has become popular in these straightened times, where multi-talented actors save the cost of hiring musicians. In the last decade actor-musicianship has become a career in its own right, and one of John Doyle’s original company at The Watermill, Jeremy Harrison, runs a well-known Actor Musician Degree course at Rose Bruford Drama College in London.

Darren Tighe as Nanki-Poo. Photo by Robert Day.

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Famous Musicals: A

Selective Chronology 1728 The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay – a famous early ballad opera 1866 The Black Crook - generally considered to be the first musical. It premiered in New York and was a staggering 5 ½ hrs long, but was extremely popular. 1885 The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan, one of their popular family-friendly comic operas, on which The Watermill’s production of Hot Mikado is based. 1927 Show Boat – a groundbreaking musical which finally offered a more complete integration of book and score, it was created by Edna Ferber, Oscar Hammerstein, P.G Wodehouse, and Jerome Kern. It influenced hugely the development of the musical. 1935 Porgy and Bess by George Gerwshwin, which had a more operatic style, foreshadowing the more operatic musicals such as West Side Story and Sweeney Todd. 1943 Oklahoma by Rogers and Hammerstein furthered the revolution begiun by Show Boat, tightly integrating plot, songs, character and dance. It famously began with a lone voice singing ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’, instead of the traditional chorus line of dancing girls. 1957 West Side Story, by Leonard Bernstein and with lyrics by the newcomer Stephen Sondheim, ths musical updated Romeo and Juliet to modern day New York City, causing great controversy among audiences. 1959 The Sound of Music by Rogers and Hammerstein opened on broadway, before being made into a film starring Julie Andrews in 1965. It is one of the most popular musicals ever made.

1964 Anyone can Whistle, an early musical by Stephen Sondheim, was a famous flop, despite starring Angela Lansbury 1967 Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical opened off-broadway. Its profanity, nudity, depiction of sexuality and drugs caused huge controversy. It also sparked a trend of ‘rock’ musicals. 1975 A Chorus Line – a musical that grew out of group therapy-style sessions with supporting actors from Broadway. It won the Pulitzer Prize and enjoyed a long run on Broadway.

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1970s The development of politically themed musicals such as Cabaret (about the rise of Nazism), Chicago (murder and prohibition), Evita (the political biography of Eva Peronin Argentina), led to darker big-budget musicals such as ... 1980 Les Miserables by Boublil and Schonberg, based on the book by Victor Hugo – the longest running West End musical in history. 1989 Miss Saigon, also by Boublil and Schonberg – a modern adaptation of the Puccini Opera Madama Butterfly. The musical is reputed to be inspired by a photograph of a Vietnamese woman leaving her child at the aiport so he can fly to be with his father, an ex-GI. 1989 Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story was the first of the ‘Juke Box’ musicals – where a minimal plot is used to put together a collection of hit songs. Later musicals have been made featuring the music of the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, and the famously successful Mamma Mia, featuring the music from Abba, which has also been made into a film. 1994 Beauty and the Beast – the first of the stage musicals from a Walt Disney film, it has now played world-wide in 115 cities. 2006 How do you solve a problem like Maria? was the first of the television reality series devoted to finding the next star of a musical, whilst also publicising the show itself. It has since become a popular way for producers to market their productions, with the competition winners becoming stars in their own right.

Darren Tighe as Nanki-Poo and Abiona Omonua as Yum-Yum. Photo by Robert Day.

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Hot Mikado: a history A brief look at the origins and history of Hot Mikado The history of Hot Mikado starts back in 1885 when Gilbert and Sullivan produced what would go on to be perhaps their most famous operetta, The Mikado, which cashed in on the interest in Japan and the orient then sweeping through London. Fifty years later The Mikado had become a venerable and highly popular show on both sides of the Atlantic, with hundreds of productions watched by thousands of dedicated Gilbert and Sullivan fans virtually every year. Information from that now bygone age is sometimes a little hazy and hard to pin down but, according to one account, one such production somewhere in the American Mid-West in 1934 was by theatre producer Mike Todd. When he found that the show was losing money and had to close, he salvaged what he could of the scenery and costumes, hired a line of dancing girls, jazzed up the show, and trouped it around various vaudeville houses under the name The Hot Mikado. Jazzed up Mikados Four years later and the fall-out from the Great Depression was actually providing some benefit for the world of art and theatre. President Franklin D Roosevelt had created numerous public bodies designed to offer opportunities for otherwise jobless folk. One of these was the WPA Federal Theatre Project, which created low paying jobs for theatre professionals to offset the hard times and make up for the scarce employment opportunities available from the private sector. Because it wasn’t focused on financial

or commercial gain, the Federal Theatre Project allowed American theatre to enjoy a surprisingly rich period of variety and theatre innovation, with great or soon to be great names such as Orson Welles, Harold Clurman, Clifford Odets, Marc Blitzstein, Elmer Rice, Robert Sherwood, William Saroyan, and S N Behrman all contributing to the effort. In 1938, the Chicago arm of the FTP produced a version of The Mikado with an all black cast called The Swing Mikado. Although it was essentially the Gilbert and Sullivan classic, it contained a number of songs that had been ‘swung’ or recast into the popular, jazzy musical idiom of the day. The show was a great success and before long a Broadway transfer was in the offing. Aware that he had been the first to stage a jazzed-up version of The Mikado, Mike Todd offered to produce the Broadway production, but his offer was turned down as the FTP decided to manage the show themselves. The Rival Mikados Unhappy at his rebuff, Todd decided to mount his own all new jazzed-up version of The Mikado, also with an all-black cast, in which he went further with a sassier, more innovative and more radical updating of the music and tone, and with the major draw of famous tap-dancer and performer Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson in the lead role. Once again entitled The Hot Mikado, the show was still set in Japan, and still featured Gilbert’s British satire, plus plenty of jokes about the political

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situation in 1939 Depression-era New York. The Swing Mikado opened at the New Yorker Theatre on Broadway on 1 March 1939 (with Eleanor Roosevelt and Mayor La Guardia attending) and ran for 86 performances. Not to be outdone, Todd’s The Hot Mikado opened across the road at the Broadhurst Theatre on 23 March 1939 and ran for 85 performances. Although most commentators felt that the two shows were sufficiently different to be able to exist side by side, there is little doubt that their rivalry and concurrent proximity hurt the profits of both shows and neither rose to be as massive a Broadway hit as they might have been. Despite its extravagant sets by Nat Karson, originally including a 40-foot soap bubble waterfall and an erupting volcano, the 1939 production of The Hot Mikado remains best known for its revitalised orchestrations that capitalised on popular early swing jazz sounds of the era. And Todd eventually had the last laugh when he made a deal for The Hot Mikado to run at the 1939 New York World Fair, where the cast of around 150 performed up to four times a day. It ran for a further two years, exceeding 200 performances—quite a feat for the time. The Modern Hot Mikado In 1985 David Bell, Artistic Director of the Historic Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC, decided to stage a

revival of The Hot Mikado. However, he soon discovered that very little, if any, source material from the original production still existed and so had to re-write the show from scratch, which he did with the help of composer Rob Bowman. Like Todd’s version, their production, set in the 1940s, remained true to the original source material, using Gilbert and Sullivan’s lyrics and music but updated the style of the music to pay homage to early 1940s jazz legends like Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and the Cotton Club. Bell and Bowman’s Hot Mikado opened at Ford’s in the spring of 1986, proved a great success and had its run extended. In 1990 it was revived in Chicago, at the Marriott Theatre, and was again a huge success. Ford’s Theatre revived the production in 1994 and in 1995 it crossed the pond and premiered in London’s West End, where the show was produced by Ronnie Lee, who had a track record of transferring American musicals to the West End (including Annie Get Your Gun and South Pacific). After opening at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre on 26 April, the show opened at the Queen’s Theatre, London and received an Olivier Nomination for Best Musical. Since then the show has been staged repeatedly by various theatre groups all over North America and Europe. Nick Hobbes © John Good

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Kabuki Kabuki, a famous Japanese style of creating theatre, has been an important source of inspiration to Director Craig Revel-Horwood and the Designer Diego Pitarch in the creation of Hot Mikado. The beginnings of Kabuki are usually dated to the spring of 1603, when a troupe led by a woman called Izumo no Okuni first performed on a dry riverbed in Kyoto. They performed exotic dances and risqué skits which had their roots in a variety of new and popular dances that began to appear around the mid-sixteenth century. Women entertainers were relatively unusual, and Okuni's outlandish, cross-dressing performances caused a sensation. During the first decades of Kabuki, many of its performers, both male and female, also worked as prostitutes offstage. From the 1620s onwards, the government attempted to bring the theatre and prostitution, which were considered morally corrupting influences on society, under strict control. Women performers were banned from the Kabuki stage in 1629, and young male prostitutes in 1652. In contemporary culture Kabuki has become a cultural ambassador for Japan, drawing much admiration on international tours. The Kabuki Acting Style While in Western theatre the playwright or director usually assumes the greatest authority, in Kabuki the actor is paramount. Japanese audiences have always celebrated the contributions made by individual actors to the tradition, in terms of acting styles or approaches to certain roles.

One of the most distinctive features of Kabuki is the onnagata, a male actor who plays the parts of women. From its earliest years, Kabuki had featured women dressed as men and men dressed as women. After women were banned from the stage in 1629, it became necessary for men to play female roles and the art of the onnagata developed. To this day, there are no actresses in Kabuki. The onnagata does not aim to mimic a real woman on stage. Rather, he becomes an idealized and artificial symbol of femininity as seen from a man's point of view. As the onnagata does not rely upon facial beauty, it is possible for an actor in his sixties or seventies to play an innocent teenage girl. The greatest onnagata have the ability to transform what could be a grotesque fiction into an emotionally moving truth. Sakata Tōjūrō (1642-1709) was the first romantic idol of Kabuki, and was adored by his many female fans. The comments Tōjūrō left behind on realistic acting reveal that his techniques were similar to those of today's Hollywood stars. His preparations were meticulous, and he suggested that gestures should not be practised in advance, rather they should arise naturally from the character's emotions. When learning dialogue, he advised: 'Commit the words to memory during rehearsal and on opening day forget them completely. I listen on stage to what the other actors say to me, and then I remember my lines and speak

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them. The reason I do this is that when we encounter people in daily life, and perhaps argue or fight with them, we cannot use lines prepared in advance. We hear what others have to say, and only then are we moved to reply. In acting, I think that everyday life should be the model...' Kabuki Theatres The layout of a Kabuki theatre today should be more or less familiar to a Western audience. There are, however, some crucial differences to Western theatres. Most noticeable is the hanamichi, a narrow raised runway that extends from stage right to the back of the auditorium. Leading actors make dramatic entrances and exits along the hanamichi right through the centre of the audience. The stage conceals a large revolve and several trap lifts that can be used to raise actors or even whole sets to dramatic effect. Another difference is the striped main stage curtain. Instead of being raised or lowered, it is pulled across to open. Today's Kabuki performances last for around five hours, but in the past they ran all day from dawn to dusk. Consequently, theatres contain several restaurants and lunchboxes and snacks are sold. You will frequently see people eating, drinking or talking during the performances - unthinkable to most Western theatregoers. There is still the sense that a Kabuki performance is a social event, with the audience enjoying the whole day's experience, not just the plays. Historically, Kabuki audiences have had closer relationships with their idols than are usual in Western theatre. In purely physical terms, the hanamichi brings the actor to within touching

distance of the audience. Kabuki fans go to the theatre to see particular actors, not plays or directors. A Westerner viewing Kabuki for the first time may be surprised by shouts from the audience of actors' nicknames or other comments when their favourite star appears on stage or at other climactic moments. For their part, the actors do not ignore the existence of the audience. Humorous ad-libbed asides sometimes make reference to recent fashions or pop stars. Plays are sometimes halted so that an actor can introduce his young son to the stage for the first time. Most spectacularly, when a famous actor succeeds to a new name, all the actors line up on stage in formal dress and ask the audience for their continuing support. Make-up and Costume Kabuki make-up encompasses a vast range of styles and effects, from the realistic to the grandiosely exaggerated. The most dramatic make-up is that worn by characters in aragoto ('rough stuff') plays and by ghosts or demons. Their faces (and sometimes their bodies) are painted with bold lines of red, blue or brown. The colours used have symbolic meanings, for example red is used to express strength or virtue, and blue usually signals evil. Wigs are worn by all characters in Kabuki, and they too are used to tell the audience about the character. A vast array of wigs representing different hairstyles are used, depending mainly on age, occupation and social status. Sometimes the wigs also signal the character's emotional state. For example, at the climactic moment in some dance plays, female characters suddenly pull on their

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sidelocks, causing the hair to cascade down over their shoulders. This represents rage or extreme jealousy. Audiences Before the twentieth century, Kabuki audiences spent the whole day at the theatre, from dawn until dusk. The main part of the day was usually occupied by one multi-act play, in which music and dance had an important role. Rather than inventing completely new plots, playwrights often took well-known stories and wove them together. Audiences enjoyed seeing familiar characters in unlikely juxtapositions, like having

Hamlet falling in love with Juliet in Sherwood Forest. Audiences could be sure that the play would contain an historical section filled with evil aristocrats, lost heirlooms and innocent princesses; a section in a contemporary setting with ordinary people as heroes; and a dance interlude. In Kabuki today you are more likely to see a programme that includes selected scenes from several plays. However, the basic structure of history, contemporary and dance sections remains the same. From ‘Kabuki Theatre of Japan’ by The Trustees of The British History Museum

Traditional Kabuki dress Karen Mann as Katisha (Photo by Robert Day)

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Interview with Diego

Pitarch

Diego Pitarch is a professional theatre designer, responsible for the design and overseeing the making of the set and costumes for Hot Mikado. Matthew Dewsbury, The Watermill’s Casting and Production Assistant, asked him a few questions about his work. What made you want to be a designer and how did you become one? Since I was very young I always liked drawing and creating things, so I have always been a creative person. I had an awkward journey towards performance design, through one disappointing year of studying architecture in Spain and then a 3 year BA course in Interior Design in Paris. Here, I became more interested in ephemeral design as I found with interior design the conceptualisation and creativity was dependent on your client’s tastes and ideas. With performance you can base designs around a concept as well as character developments. So once I had graduated I moved to London because I thought – that’s the place for theatre – and I went to the Slade to do an MA in Theatre Design. I entered the Linbury Prize in 2001 and got to the final, which put me one foot into the industry and allowed me to get lots of contacts. How do you design for The Watermill’s unique space? The Watermill is obviously a tiny space! So practically the major struggle is having a space that allows 12 people to dance and play

instruments. The building is very characterful, the stage is in the thrust and is invasive of the building itself and so the main challenge is to try to integrate the design into the building. We’ve tried to do this in all of our productions. So, for example, with Spend Spend Spend! we transformed the theatre into a pub. We never pretend we are anywhere else than where or what the set is. We can then transform the space using a few simple devices, which take some planning, for example in Spend we move the bar back and forth and bring the bed down. This was much harder with Sunset Boulevard because the story has a car chase and a swimming pool, things that can’t happen in The Watermill. These problems and the simple devices we use provide great intellectual challenges. By integrating the design into the building and embracing the space it puts the weight of the storytelling firmly with the actors, and with the audience being so close it makes the performance so much more real. The design rarely intrudes or tries too hard to do the actors job. So what were your design ideas for Hot Mikado? We decided to transform The Watermill into a Kabuki Theatre. Traditional Japanese Kabuki theatres are usually wooden structures and The Watermill being a wooden structure lended itself to that idea. We wanted to create a contrast between the old

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world and the new world, between characters like The Mikado and Katisha who are very conservative and stick to the rules and the younger generation who are led by their feelings and instincts. The set is representative of the older conservative world and is based on very traditional Japanese design. It has a very simple structure and the lines and squares on the floor and walls hint at the idea that things are regimented and regularised. And what were the ideas with the costumes? With the costumes we did the exact opposite so the people that inhabit this space are very much in contrast with it. We got the inspiration for the costumes from Japanese manga and anime. We also played with the idea of traditional Japanese costume, occidental eastern suits and Japanese Samurai costume. We combined this with the nature of our cast being particularly international so we could play with a mixing pot of cultures as well as traditional Japanese costume. With the set and the costume we created two opposing worlds, which is reflective of the clash between young and old in the story. Does the design change through rehearsals? Craig, Sarah and I have lots of conversations before rehearsals begin to try and pre-empt how we are going to address all of the issues and elements of the performance but I try to be around during rehearsals as much as possible. Things always come out of performance, which may mean I need to adapt some part of the set and address those new ideas to

make them work. With the costume a similar process occurs. When I do the costume designs I have an idea of what a character might be and I try to form that in the look of the costume but often the actor might come in to rehearsals and the character may develop into something very different. We do costume fittings, in which these changes can be made. I never have any designs set in stone and I’m very happy to be flexible and change things in order to help the storytelling. This production is also touring. How do you adapt the design for all of the venues? I have lots of conversations with Lawrence T Doyle, (Production manager) and Richard G. Jones, (Lighting designer) in order to get the technical side of things right. It is mainly a practical issue and making sure the set can be expanded or contracted for each venue. The concept or look of the set itself is never changed. What advice would you give to any young budding designers? You have to be faithful to your own ideas and try to develop a style of your own. You should create as much as you can and build a strong portfolio because the hardest part of being a designer is getting that first job. So if you create a portfolio that will define your talent and your personality it might trigger a response for someone who can see a certain creative compatibility, which might develop into a working relationship. Here, Craig, Sarah, Richard and I have worked together for four years; we enjoy each others company, bounce ideas off one another and respect each others talent and intelligence. Being a good team player is vitally important.

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Interview with Sarah

Travis Sarah is the musical supervisor and arranger for Hot Mikado! She has also worked on numerous other productions at The Watermill, including Bubbles, Spend Spend Spend!, Sunset Boulevard, Martin Guerre, Honk!, Sweeney Todd and many more. Beth Flintoff talked to her before Hot Mikado rehearsals started, when she was working on the score at home. How would you describe what you do? I’ m different things at different times! I am an orchestrator, a musical supervisor, and a pianist. Where did you train? I did a Degree at City University and then took a Diploma in Composition at The Guildhall School of Music . Also in 1996 I took a sabbatical and trained to be a Music Therapist. Where and how do you like to work? Sometimes I’m in rehearsal, of course, and then I do it in the rehearsal room,

and if I’m performing I’ll do it anywhere. But when I’m arranging I sit in my office at home with the piano upstairs, and a keyboard wired into the computer. I use a Scoring Software called Sibelius. From here I can look out onto a garden and I can even do some weeding if I get bored! It’s a very solitary job – I sit alone for hours. For example, at the moment I’m working at home on Spend Spend Spend (The Watermill’s previous production). It’s very nice when the sun is shining, and I enjoy it, even though it’s solitary. Particularly when the shows are fun, like these.

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Credits Director and Choreographer Craig Revel Horwood Musical Supervisor and Arrangements Sarah Travis Designer Diego Pitarch Lighting Designer Richard G Jones Sound Designer Chris Full CAST Alastair Brookshaw …………………………………………………...Blo Hy Robin Colyer …………………………………………………………...Tip-Tap Neil Ditt ………………………………………………………………....Dit-Sum Lee Drage ………………………………………………………..Len-Goo Man Georgina Field ………………………………………………………...Peep-Bo Jeffrey Harmer …………………………………………………………...Ko-Ko Julian Littman ……………………………………………………….Pooh-Bah Karen Mann …………………………………………………………......Katisha Melanie Marshall ……………………………………………………......Mikado Abiona Omonua …………………………………………………….Yum-Yum Kit Orton ………………………………………………………….......Pish-Tush Cassie Pearson ………………………………………………………Pitti-Sing Dominic Tighe ……………………………………………………....Nanki-Poo Production Manager Lawrence T. Doyle Company Stage Manager Ami-Jayne Steele-Childe Assistant Production Manager Nelly Chauvet Show Musical Director Robert Cousins Company Stage Manager (Tour) Andy Beardmore Deputy Stage Manager Holly Handel Assistant Stage Manager Victoria Horn Sound Operator Matthew McCarthy Lighting Relight Christopher Hirst Carpenter Matt Steele-Childe Wardrobe Debbie Macgregor and Vanessa Hingley Wardrobe Mistress Vanessa Hingley Press and Publicity Tei Williams