Doctor Who regenerates in to The Mikado

10:06am Friday 5th September 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Last month David Tennant’s first performance as Hamlet for the RSC was accompanied by a flood of media interest.

Avid Doctor Who fans were, however, left disappointed when they were banned from queuing up at the stage door for their favourite time traveller’s signature.

Now Sylvester McCoy, another former Doctor Who, is also teleporting onto stage to take on the starring role in Carl Rosa Opera’s production of The Mikado, which opens Richmond Theatre’s autumn season on Tuesday.

McCoy takes a different attitude to autograph hunters: “I like the fans, especially the ones who pay to see the show.

“You get some of them with lots of bits of memorabilia to sign and they say ‘you are my fifth favourite doctor’, but I think it is great.”

He is taking over from Alistair McGowan who played the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan’s celebrated opera during a successful West End run in Feburary.

McCoy, who is joined in the cast by Jonathan Ansell, formerly of boy band warblers G4, and Nichola McAuliffe, who starred in 90s sitcom Surgical Spirit, believes the demands of performing on stage and in front of a camera are very different: “Television is like a jigsaw and you just fit in to it,” he says.

“In theatre there is a magic relationship between us and the audience that you don’t really get in telly.”

But what is it about The Mikado that has drawn McCoy back to the stage?

He says: “Music, the songs – we all know them and grew up with them, but a lot of people, including me, didn’t know where they came from.”

Set in ancient Japan, The Mikado tells the comic tale of thwarted lovers and political corruption and the production is unrelentingly faithful to Gilbert and Sullivan’s original vision, which director Peter Mulloy believes is an important part of Carl Rosa’s approach.

He says: “The Mikado is about corruption in local English Government but the more Japanese we make it the more we can recognise those very English characters.

“It is also a joy to have a live orchestra in the theatre. I think that’s one of the great things that Carl Rosa still has.”

The company are hopeful their exacting approach to Gilbert and Sullivan will excite people of all ages.

Mulloy says: “Audiences come out of The Mikado, no matter what age group, having had a really good time, and that is what we aim to do – to entertain you.”

• The Mikado, Richmond Theatre, Tuesday, September 9 - Saturday, September 13. Tickets £13 - £27. For tickets phone 0870 060 665 or click here.