This is not going to be a Mikado like any non-concept Mikados (i.e., not a Hot Mikado, Not Mikado, McAdo, etc.) I've ever seen. Looks like our director is going to play Katisha more broadly than I'm used to seeing in a non-concept production. Our AD has some good insights into how Katisha should be played, but the director seems to want to play her closer to caricature than character. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out, and how the audience reacts.
One fillip that will be a nice twist is the fact that our Ko-Ko is something of a hunk; our director has remarked more than once that it will take some work to make the audience believe that Yum-Yum couldn't possibly be interested in marrying him. Because the actor is good-looking, our director has him playing Ko-Ko as a bit narcissistic, which has added some novel touches here and there.
We ran Act II for the first time last night; I think we were all a bit ragged, even our MD/accompanist. It had me thinking about characterizations of our various leads and wondering if we all "match" - are some of us more over-the-top than others? Never worried about this before; it's probably just "first lead" nerves, combined with the awareness that we open 2 weeks from tonight. Now I'm getting nervous about my characterization - is it enough, is it too much, does it blend with the others or stick out like a sore thumb? Yet I don't want to be a prima donna and keep asking the director and AD "how am I?" "am I doing this right?" "could I improve this?" (When I get like this, I have to sit myself down and remind myself that this is only community theater; lives are not at stake here.)
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