{"product_id":"the-panjandrum-of-toboku-the-mikado-redone-for-modern-sensitivies-by-phyllis-ann-karr-w-s-gilbert-and-arthur-sullivan-paperback","title":"The Panjandrum of Toboku: The Mikado Redone for Modern Sensitivies, by Phyllis Ann Karr, W. S. Gilbert, and Arthur Sullivan (Paperback)","description":"\u003cp\u003eDuring my lifetime, I have seen well-to-do people of color gleefully collecting vintage bric-a-brac that in the days of their parents and grandparents would have fueled race riots. I can bravely predict that in another generation or two, when I am no longer around to see it, \u003cem\u003eThe Mikado\u003c\/em\u003e will be rediscovered and gleefully performed as its authors envisioned it, with everyone-including Japanese-wondering what all the fuss was about. Meanwhile, those of us who love G\u0026amp;S scrabble for ways to save perhaps the biggest box-office draw in our repertory (rivaled only by \u003cem\u003ePinafore\u003c\/em\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe recognize that it might be futile. Likely the Japanese tie-in was among the elements that made \u003cem\u003eThe Mikado\u003c\/em\u003e such a blockbuster in its own day. And perhaps awareness of what the show traditionally was remains too raw a wound for any bandage whatever to suffice for a generation or two. Yet we scrabble on.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis, then, is one more effort to render Gilbert \u0026amp; Sullivan's masterpiece racially and ethnically inoffensive. Unable to see how simply changing the national or ethnic group can solve the problem, I have tried turning the story openly into the province of Gilbert's fantasy Topsyturvydom that it always was beneath its pseudo-Japanese mask, as were \u003cem\u003ePinafore\u003c\/em\u003e and the others beneath their British (or, exceptionally, Venetian, Utopian, and Pfenig Halbpfennigan) veneers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wildside Press LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43185014472913,"sku":"9781479452699","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/5981\/5377\/files\/9781479452699_FC.jpg?v=1784122565","url":"https:\/\/startlingstories.us\/products\/the-panjandrum-of-toboku-the-mikado-redone-for-modern-sensitivies-by-phyllis-ann-karr-w-s-gilbert-and-arthur-sullivan-paperback","provider":"Startling Stories","version":"1.0","type":"link"}