" HOT MIKADO , the Alliance Theatre's electrifying, blow-your-toupee-off musical, doesn't merely say, 'Let us entertain you.' It says, 'You will be entertained.'" - - - Dan Hulbert, Atlanta Journal & Constitution

HOT MIKADO plays August 21 through September 21, 1997 with performances running Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., with an audio described matinee on Saturday, September 13 at 2:30 p.m.

HOT MIKADO is a joyous 1940s big-band version of Gilbert and Sullivan's classic The Mikado, a comic operetta about love and justice in the ancient Japanese village of Titipu. The book and lyrics for this jazzy new musical were adapted by director and choreographer Bell, with musical arrangements adapted by Rob Bowman. HOT MIKADO is the story of Nanki-Poo, a wandering musician, and his quest to wed his sweetheart Yum-Yum. In comic Gilbert and Sullivan fashion, Nanki-Poo is confronted with a tangle of hysterical complications. While attempting to win the lovely Yum-Yum, Nanki-Poo must dodge the blade of Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, and the romantic clutches of Katisha, an aging torch singer.

The play earned accolades for spectacular musical arrangements in which Bowman has retained the lovely melodies of the original music, but changed virtually every rhythm and harmonic pattern by injecting the soaring rhythms of the Big-Band era. Bell's choreography is a tap-dancing, jitterbugging tour-de-force, as The Times in London noted, calling the 1995 hit a "sizzling evening of fun and fancy footwork."

In 1986 when Bell was Artistic Director at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., he decided to direct a swing version of The Mikado. He knew that Swing Mikado , featuring an African-American cast, had originated in Chicago in the late '30s. In 1939, that production moved to Broadway, and legendary producer Mike Todd opened The Mikado, a rival production, across the street. In his research, Bell found no existing records of either version, so he and Bowman created their own version of the classic Japanese satire set in the American jazz era of the late '30s and early '40s. HOT MIKADO, which had its world premiere at Ford's Theatre in 1986, enjoyed an acclaimed revival at Ford's in 1994, prior to heading to London's West End.

HOT MIKADO features an incredibly talented cast of Broadway performers including Joey Hollingsworth as the elegant tap-dancing Mikado, and Joel Blum as the delightfully funny Ko-Ko. Hollingsworth's song and dance career includes over 300 television appearances, plays, international tours and 15 years on the "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" television show. Blum received a 1996 Tony Award nomination for best supporting actor in the Broadway musical Steel Pier, and a 1995 nomination in the same category for the Hal Prince revival of Show Boat. Alliance audiences will remember Blum from Animal Crackers and Carnival . Starring as the young lovers are Anthony Galde as Nanki-Poo (following his role as David in King David on Broadway) and Lovette George as Yum-Yum.

Atlanta favorites in the cast include Chandra Currelley as Katisha, LaParee Young as Pooh-Bah, Charles Bullock as Pish-Tush, and Mary Jo Mahaffey as Peep-Bo. Rounding out the cast are Lori Alexander, Leo Alvarez, R. Bradley Anderson, William Patrick Dunne, Jeffrey Elsass, Christopher R. Kirby, Audrey Klinger, Melissa Rae Mahon, Josh Rhodes and Jennifer West.

Director David H. Bell's hilarious musical revival of the Neil Simon classic Little Me, which closed the Alliance's '96-97 season, will open in September at the North Shore Musical Theatre in Boston. Also last season, Bell directed the new Herman Wouk/Jimmy Buffet musical Don't Stop the Carnival at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida. At the Alliance he has staged Romeo and Juliet, Once on this Island , The Boys from Syracuse, Falsettos, Once More with Hart, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, and the Alliance Children's Theatre productions of The Snow Queen and The Emperor's Nightingale. He has directed in London, Paris, Berlin, Toronto, on and off Broadway, and in regional theatres throughout the country. Mr. Bell is the recipient of the 1995 Helen Hayes Award (Washington D.C.) for Best Director; eight Joseph Jefferson Awards (Chicago) and a Dramalogue Award (Los Angeles).

Tickets for HOT MIKADO are $16-$36 and may be purchased online at the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office or by calling (404) 733-5000. Fifteen dollar youth tickets are available for students 17 and under or college students with I.D. Discount rates for groups of 15 or more may be obtained by calling Carolyn Gant at (404) 733- 4690.

HOT MIKADO is sponsored by NationsBank. The Alliance Theatre Company season is sponsored by the Atlanta Journal and Constitution and Delta Air Lines. Media sponsor for HOT MIKADO is B98.5 FM.