Why the Mikado is Anti-Racist.

And why it must be set in Japan

I recently saw a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s the Mikado renamed Il Ducato and set in Milan instead of Japan. This reminded me of another rewritten version I read about online called the MacAdo , which was set in Scotland. Both of these shows struck me as solution in search of a problem, and to switch metaphors, a case where the cure is worse than the disease. Il Ducato still had enough of the show’s original sparkle to be worth watching, but it didn’t benefit from the retelling in any way whatsoever. The only reason…