Review of the 1895 Revival from The Times Thursday, November 7, 1895.

SAVOY THEATRE

If the enthusiastic applause with which The Mikado was received last night at the Savoy Theatre is any criterion of success, the revival of Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan’s popular opera should lead to as long a run as it achieved on its first production. During the ten or eleven years which have elapsed since it originally saw the light the bright and amusing work has travelled round the world, everywhere meeting with the same warm reception, and it was therefore a happy idea of Mr. Carte’s once more to bring it forward in its original home.

Only three members of the 1885 cast remain, but they are in themselves sufficient to carry off the performance. With Mr. Rutland Barrington as Pooh-Bah, Miss Jessie Bond as Pitti-Sing, and Miss Rosina Brandram as Katisha the management was safe in reviving the work, but fortunately the new members of the cast are in nearly every instance equally as good as these old favourites. Mr. Grossmith is, indeed, absent, and clever as Mr. Passmore is in the part of Ko-Ko, he does not succeed in effacing recollections of the humour of his predecessor. In Mr. Scott Fisher (sic) as the Mikado, Mr. Kenningham as Nanki-Poo, and particularly in Miss Florence Perry as Yum-Yum, the new cast could not be improved upon, and the excellent singing of the chorus and brilliant way in which the opera is mounted are fully worthy the traditions of the house.

Last night’s performance, which was conducted by Sir Arthur Sullivan in person, was, in fact, a triumph from first to last. All the old favourite numbers in the score were encored – “The flowers that bloom in the spring” had to be twice repeated – and both artists and composer were loudly cheered by an exceptionally large audience.

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