The Mikado in Melbourne

The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Victoria will present the enduringly popular Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera The Mikado at the Alexander Theatre, Monash University, from July 17 to 20, 2025.

The Mikado features much loved songs such as “I’ve Got A Little List” (the better known title of “As Someday it May Happen”), “A Wand’ring Minstrel I”, “Three Little Maids From School Are We” and “The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring” and many more.

Nanki-Poo loves Yum-Yum but she’s betrothed to Ko-Ko, the new Lord High Executioner. When the Mikado (or emperor) orders a beheading, Nanki-Poo and Ko-Ko try to come to an arrangement that doesn’t involve anyone losing their head! However, the arrival in town of the spurned Katisha turns everything topsy-turvy. With melodious mischief and preposterous plots, the tangled web unravels; will the punishment fit the crime?

Gilbert’s imagined Japan was enriched by a London exhibition featuring a Japanese village inhabited by 100 citizens and the European obsession with everything Japanese following its re-opening to the world. The distracting beauty of his Japanese setting allowed Gilbert to get away with poking fun at the staid social norms, absurd etiquette, and weighty bureaucracy of a colonising Victorian England.

This comic opera enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe where 17 companies performed it 9,000 times within two years of its premiere in 1885. And, in 2006, the Japanese Tokyo Theatre Company presented The Mikado as part of the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in England.

The Mikado is presented in Alexander Theatre, Clayton 17-20 July, and touring to regional Victoria (Queenscliff: 26 July; Stawell 2 Aug; Cowes 9-10 Aug).

The Mikado MPAC

Music: Sir Arthur Sullivan
Libretto: W.S. Gilbert 

Alexander Theatre (Monash University), 48 Exhibition Walk, Clayton

Thursday 17 July 2025, 7.30pm
Friday 18 July 2025, 7.30pm
Saturday 19 July 2025, 2pm
Saturday 19 July 2025, 7.30pm
Sunday 20 July 2025, 2pm

Tickets: https://www.monash.edu/performing-arts-centres/event/the-mikado/

About the Society

The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Victoria Inc (GSSV), founded in 1935 by JC Williamson's with the University of Melbourne.

Its performing arm, Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria, offers high-quality and modestly-priced live theatre experiences, specialising in sparkling Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, classic Golden Era musicals and the rediscovery of charming musical and theatrical gems from the late 19th to early 20th century.

The Society is a registered charity, independent and self-funded. 

Patron: Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Margaret Gardner AC. Governor of Victoria.