For nearly a decade, Gilbert and Sullivan’s collaborations have delighted the English people. But in 1884, as a London heat wave cuts into the theater trade, their latest work, "Princess Ida", receives lukewarm press. In an effort to reconcile their creative differences and drawing inspiration from Japanese culture, they went on to create the hit opera "The Mikado", one of the duo's greatest successes.
Acting
Jim Broadbent's Gilbert: prickly, wounded, utterly human.
Production
Recreated 1884 London down to the cigar ash.
Direction
Leigh's improv methods somehow work in corsets.
Director
Mike Leigh
Jim Broadbent
W. S. Gilbert
Allan Corduner
Sir Arthur Sullivan
Timothy Spall
Richard Temple (The Mikado)
Lesley Manville
Lucy Gilbert
Ron Cook
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Wendy Nottingham
Helen Lenoir
Kevin McKidd
Durward Lely (Nanki-Poo)
Shirley Henderson
Leonora Braham (Yum-Yum)
Dorothy Atkinson
Jessie Bond
Martin Savage
George Grossmith
Eleanor David
Fanny Ronalds
Sam Kelly
Richard Barker
Andy Serkis
John D'Auban
Vincent Franklin
Rutland Barrington
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Leigh had his cast live in period housing for weeks and improvise backstories — the Japanese exhibition scene contains genuine reactions to seeing Japan for the 'first time.'
Made in 1999, the film quietly interrogates The Mikado's Orientalism just as productions worldwide were finally reckoning with its racist legacy.
GB
