RECREATING THE WORLD OF 'MIKADO' IN A.V.\Gilbert-Sullivan production ready for Palmdale run.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer

William Gilbert was a flop as a lawyer. His first client threw her boot at him after the judge pronounced the sentence.

Arthur Sullivan wanted to compose serious music. The hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" and Christmas song "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" are his work.

But the pair of Victorian Englishmen gained fame, as a team, through their satirical and witty operettas full of catchy tunes.

Acclaimed as the masterpiece of the pair's cooperation, "The Mikado" will come to the Palmdale Playhouse the next two weekends in a production by the Desert Opera Theatre.

Gilbert and Sullivan works have become a tradition for the group. The group did "H.M.S. Pinafore" in 1993, "Pirates of Penzance" in 1990, and "The Mikado" in 1989.

"If we don't do one every couple of years, people start asking," said director Bill Dearth, who is also one of the stars in this production. "People really enjoy the silliness of them."

"The Mikado" will open tonight at 8 at the Palmdale Playhouse, 38334 10th St. E.

Shows are also scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. March 29, 8 p.m. March 30 and 2 p.m. March 31. Tickets are $10 for senior citizens, $12 for other adults and $8 for children. A special first-come, first-served, abbreviated free performance for children is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday. Children must be accompanied by an adult. For information or tickets, call 267-5685.

First produced in 1885 when London was in the midst of a craze about Japan, "The Mikado" falls about midway between classic opera and modern musical theater.

It follows a love triangle set in the court of the mikado or emperor, but its comedy derives largely from the characters' deviousness at circumventing the mikado's laws.

Ko-Ko, a tailor promoted to lord high executioner, and Nanki-Poo, the mikado's son - who fled the court disguised as a minstrel to escape marriage with an elderly lady - both want to marry Yum-Yum.

The play's 1885 opening brought a protest from the Japanese ambassador to Britain, but the target of its satire was plainly Britain. The actors' manners, speech and attitudes are Victorian English, Dearth points out.

"Because they were writing social satire, we always try to throw in some local and contemporary references, to bring the point home," Dearth said.

Gilbert and Sullivan works are more difficult than most of the musicals that make up Desert Opera's repertoire, but Dearth said all the roles are filled with Antelope Valley people.

"There's an incredible pool of developed talent in the valley. We almost never have trouble finding the voices to fill Gilbert and Sullivan," said Dearth, who holds a master's degree in opera from the University of Washington, teaches vocal lessons and works for a firm that makes hospital furniture.

Besides Dearth as Ko-Ko, the cast includes Kathy Conner as Yum-Yum, Rob Cutler as Nanki-Poo, Malcolm Anderson as the mikado, and Bill Smith as Pooh-Bah.

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Photo (1--color) Kathy Conner, middle, plays Yum-Yum in "The Mikado" production set to open Saturday in Palmdale. (2--color) Rob Cutler as the mikado's son Nanki-Poo, left, smiles at Yum-Yum while Bill Dearth as Ko-Ko, the executioner, fusses. Dusty Locke/Special to the Daily News