Review of The Hypocrite's The Mikado at Steppenwolf Garage

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called The Mikado. This is my second time reviewing The Mikado, but I still love it! I really love this show because you get to move around in the space and you really feel like you are part of the story. I really recommend that people see it because it is one of the best shows I have seen!

I think the space that they used this time, which is the Steppenwolf Garage, is a really nice space for the show, but I like the Chopin equally. It was different because the bar was in a different place and they didn't sell candy before. The candy I actually thought was a plus! The space was way bigger, and I thought that that was good, and I also really liked the new choreography that they could do because the space was bigger. I really liked the new placement of the actors at the end. I liked it because it used the wheel and the horse.

There was a song called "Three Little Maids from School" and it was sung by the three little maids from school, Yum-Yum (Emily Casey), Pitti-Sing (Christine Stulik), and Peep-Bo (Dana Omar), who were not servants but maid-ens. They were singing about how they were very innocent. They are innocent, but they also are little bit more of tough. They don't like Ko-Ko (Robert McLean) at all because Yum-Yum wants to marry Nanki-Poo (Shawn Pfautsch). So they are tough because they have to obey Ko-Ko but they kind of sometimes don't obey him, like when he says do your apology dance, they are kind of sassy. I had never noticed this before but now I did because I am kind of sassy. Once you are a tween, you start getting sassy.

The Pooh-Bah (Matt Kahler) was always kissing people on the head with his fingers. I thought that that was really really funny because you didn't expect him to do that because it was something that was random. That is very appropriate for the Pooh-Bah because the Pooh-Bah is very random. He is random in that way that he is very fast talking and you didn't really know what he was going to say next. Matt Kahler is so funny and I think the Pooh-Bah is the perfect role for him!

I thought the song called "Tit-willow" was interesting. It was about a bird who had died because he was in love with another bird probably and it didn't work out so well. The purpose of it was to make Katisha (Pfautsch) love Ko-Ko. It works, because she says, "Oh, did you know Tit-Willow?" and he says, "Yes, I knew him very personally." It is a pretty song and it is pretty funny. These things don't usually work very well together, but in this case they do. They work because the song was kind of cheesy, so when she started sniffling it was kind of funny because it wasn't really that sad of a song.

When they were singing "There's Lots of Good Fish in the Sea" to make the lord high executioner, Ko-Ko, feel better, Nanki-Poo came and said to me, "can I have your doll?" And then I gave him Caroline, my doll. They danced her around to make Ko-Ko feel better. And it looked really weird but really funny. And when they gave it back, I was like, "Thank you!" This only happens to people who have dolls. So bring your dolls! How they took my doll shows you that the show is really free-spirited. I mean that not after opening do they say, "hey we can't play around with the show anymore." They say, "Everybody! Let's keep playing around with the show!" And when I saw it, it worked out perfectly! I think it makes it funner for the actors not to have to stick to a bunch of rules. It makes the audience feel like they are really a part of the show and it makes you feel like you are seeing a one-time thing that no one else will see.

People who would like this show are people who like kissing people on the head with two fingers, fish (because there are lots of good fish in the sea), and sassy maid-ens. If this is your kid's first show you should tell them that you cannot walk around at every single show. Everyone should go see this show immediately because it is fun and it is one of the best winter shows. I think they should bring it back next year and the year after that until they have been doing it for a hundred years. They could use different actors, but even if they are old men and old ladies, I wouldn't care!


Photos: Matthew Gregory Hollis