Julia Swindle (as Pitti Sing), Abbie Dueppen (as Yum Yum), Melissa Nguyen (as Peep Bo). Photo Monica Kressman: Bryan Key photoSpeaking of staying power:

W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s The Mikado premiered in 1885.

The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Houston has produced one of the team’s works each summer since 1952.

Alistair Donkin, formerly of the fabled D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, has directed and starred in the Houston G&S group’s show every year since 1982 — including its 2004 Mikado that won first place at that year’s International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England.

So it’s no surprise that the ever-popular Mikado remains good fun in the company’s current mounting. With solid vocal and orchestral work sustaining the performance, it matters little that the rendition is not all that different from past mountings. Most G&S fans likely would not have it any other way.

With Sullivan’s appealing music matched to Gilbert’s playful libretto, The Mikado epitomizes the blend of silliness and stateliness that G&S fans find sublime. Its intentionally nonsensical plot gently kids Victorian-era British attitudes and institutions through a fanciful tale of old Japan.

Nanki-Poo, son of the Mikado (Emperor of Japan), has fled the court to avoid marrying the overbearing Katisha. Disguised as a musician, Nanki-Poo falls in love with fetching Yum-Yum, but she is slated to marry her guardian, Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner.

Formerly a tailor, under sentence of death for flirting, Ko-Ko has become executioner to avoid executing himself. When an edict from the Mikado insists that someone must be executed within 30 days, a solution is devised. Since Nanki-Poo is planning to kill himself because he cannot wed Yum-Yum, he agrees to become Ko-Ko’s victim in one month’s time — if he is permitted to spend his remaining month married to Yum-Yum.

As stage director, Donkin relies chiefly on the traditional formations, patterns and ensemble gestures that are still effective, if at times a shade ossified. The obvious stage business, the mugging and repetition of devices can grow trying at times — though most of the audience at Sunday’s matinee gobbled up the familiar shtick like the rarest truffles.

Donkin dispatches the pivotal comic role of Ko-Ko with customary authority, delivering his rapid-fire patter songs with precision and embellishing the portrayal with impish comic business. His I’ve Got a Little List, citing offensive types who would “none of them be missed” if executed, is always an opportunity to include current references. In this version, the new additions spanking Charlie Sheen, Rupert Murdoch and other such pests make the scene a highlight.

Sarah L. Lee lends the requisite formidable voice and imposing presence to the forbidding Katisha — that familiar G&S type, the battle-axe who wants to be treated as an ingenue.

Joshua La Force and Abigail Dueppen bring fine voices and attractive personalities to lovers Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum — his smooth, robust tenor and her bright, clean soprano making all their vocals a treat.
Ralph Katz, returning to his past role as the Mikado, gives the ruler gruff presence and vocal heft.

Dennis Arrowsmith makes an amusingly pompous Pooh-Bah, “Lord High Everything Else” — all authorities (except emperor and executioner) rolled into one.

Melissa Trevino Nguyen as Peep-Bo, and especially Julia Swindle as the aggressively merry Pitti-Sing, score neatly as the heroine’s two ubiquitous sidekicks.

Brian Runnels’ sensitive conducting elicits a precise and well-balanced performance from the orchestra. Though Gilbert’s libretto is chiefly after laughs, Sullivan’s music most certainly is not — and Runnels treats it with appropriate care and tact.

Overall — and especially aurally — this latest Mikado is highly enjoyable in its comfortingly traditional fashion.

THE MIKADO
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday
2:30 p.m. Sunday
Wortham Theater Center
501 Texas
$25-$46
713-627-3570