Sushi and Soul

By WILLIAM A. HENRY III

Gilbert and Sullivan purists will hate the The Hot Mikado, at Washington's Ford's Theatre and apparently on its way to Broadway. Musically, they will deplore the conversion of W.S. Gilbert's candybox-pretty score into swing, jazz and gospel arrangements that bounce like the 1940s. Lyrically, they will ask themselves which is worse, rewriting some of Arthur Sullivan's urbane verse (one big laugh comes when Katisha, a scorned lady of the court played as a black street diva by Loretta Devine, screeches, "You piss me off!") or rendering much of what is left all but unintelligible through vocal pyrotechnics and general high spirits from a decidedly multicultural cast.

The rest of us, however, will be too busy having a high-energy good time to question director-choreographer-adapter David Bell's inspired tinkering (with hip musical help from Rob Bowman). Even for G&S fans, this is a lot better than watching D'Oyly Carte traditionalists wheezing their own dust.

Lawrence Hamilton plays the title panjandrum as a tap-dance master with the wardrobe of a pimp. As the cowardly Lord High Executioner, Ross Lehman bawdily woos Devine to save his own neck while sporting a getup and manner reminiscent of Eddie Cantor. Despite first-act dances that look too much alike and a disappointment from Ben Wright, who is winsome as the vanilla hero

Nanki-Poo but does not cut loose vocally as he did in Into the Woods, this is an amazing turnaround for Bell and Bowman, who mounted Broadway's truly brainless if brief musical flop, the gender-swapping castle fantasy A Change in the Heir, in 1990. Where that air was stale, this is irrepressibly fresh and fizzy.