The Swing Mikado
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The Swing Mikado is an operetta in two acts with music arranged by Gentry Warden, based on Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, The Mikado. It was first staged by an all-black company in Chicago in 1938.
The Swing Mikado was a production of the WPA's Federal Theatre Project. The production was conceived, staged, and directed by Harry Minturn, with swing re-orchestrations of Arthur Sullivan's music by Warden, and starring Maurice Cooper as Nanki-Poo. After a five-month run in Chicago, the production moved to Broadway where it had a run of 86 performances. Its success inspired producer Mike Todd to mount a similar production, The Hot Mikado.
The opening night in New York was attended by Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, and Mayor LaGuardia. New York Times reviewer Brooks Atkinson gave it a good, if patronizing, review, praising Maurice Cooper as "a Nanki-Poo of superior voice and articulate acting capability" but complaining that the large company of "sepia show-folk" [sic] included "some that only fumble the music." Atkinson indicated that
- "...after a slow start the show goes on a bender, the performers grin and strut and begin stamping out the hot rhythms with an animal frenzy. 'Za-zu-za-zu,' the three little maids from school say huskily, breaking down into a smoking caper. All this is something to see and hear... the chorus includes some dusky wenches who can dance for the Savoyard jitterbugs with gleaming frenzy, tossing their heads in wild delight... when [the company] gives The Mikado a Cotton Club finish, they raise the body temperature considerably."
