The comic opera, originally written and composed by Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert, is taking a Japanese Harajuku youth culture style under the direction of Jo Durst, faculty director of the department of communication.
“Harajuku style is extremely theatrical. It fits with what is taking place, the love story, the buffoonery of adults and the rock image of rockstars. I have a fascination with the Far East, so it just seemed like a natural fit,” Durst said.
Although the original “The Mikado” was performed in London in 1885 as an opera, Durst took creative liberty in replacing the classical opera music with a rock band. A local Starkville band, the Mooring Line, combined with two MSU professors and a drummer creates the rock-centric sound behind MSU’s version of  “The Mikado.”
Keatzi Gunmoney, lead guitarist and vocalist for the Mooring Line, said transition of ‘The Mikado’ music from classical music to a rock score has been challenging.
“Improvising on top of this really complicated music is tough because it’s very old-fashioned music; there are lots of key changes. The chord progressions are not very modern at all. They’re very old-fashioned. It’s kind of difficult to wrap your head around,” Gunmoney said.
The operetta consists of 25 songs and just under 200 pages of classical music. The violinist in the “The Mikado” band and department of foreign languages professor, Anna Debicka-Dyer, does not think the transition to a more modern score will take away from the spirit of the play.
“We haven’t lost it but we’ve modernized it a little bit and made it fun, and I think that’s [the most fun] part, and that’s what I want people to get from it. You can have a classical piece and still have fun with it; do something new and exciting,” Debicka-Dyer said.
Despite the tweaking of the musical composition to more modern tastes, actors like sophomore kinesiology major Andie Bradford found working with live musical accompaniment to be demanding, she said.
“Before we first got with the band, we’d been practicing with the CD and just a piano, and so getting with the band changed what we were practicing — opera to rock — so it was a whole change. We had to work out timing issues and getting the rhythm down and that kind of thing,” she said.
Although the band and actors of “The Mikado” first started rehearsing together March 20, Gunmoney thinks confidence and communication between the two branches is the key.
“This band’s performance is interesting because we’re having to make a lot of space in the music for the actors because we can’t overpower them and we’re, of course, a styled rock band. So we’re having to make a lot of ambient space that’s not overpowering, and we just have to trust each other a lot,” Gunmoney said.
“The Mikado” musical score is not the only aspect of the play given an overhaul. The play’s clothing style and scenery are based on modern Harajuku culture, giving a bright, collage look to the McComas main stage. Costume designer and communication professor Melanie Harris credits the exciting nature of the show to its variety in design.
“This one has seemed a lot more fun because it’s some wigs, some costumes, some this, some that. This play, every costume is completely unique, so it was a lot of fun because you never felt like you were doing the same thing twice,” Harris said.
Bradford said she hopes the show’s distinct style will lure more people to attend a performance.
“When I first found out it was going to be a spinoff the opera it was a lot more exciting because more people are going to come to see a rock musical. When they hear ‘rock’ and they hear ‘crazy costumes’ and ‘crazy hair,’ it gets everyone pumped and we’re excited for it,” Bradford said.