“Mike Leigh directs – a musical! The brilliant chronicler of the emotional currents of everyday life in contemporary London (NAKED, SECRETS AND LIES) turns his biting, comic eye back to the 19th century for a mesmerizing, hugely satisfying tale reminiscent of the grand lets-put-on-a-show Hollywood musical tradition. Leigh’s show people aren’t his ordinary folk, they’re the most famous librettist and composer of comic operas in English history, W.S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) and Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner). In 1884, however, the duo has hit a slump, and may be breaking up. Then Gilbert’s wife drags him to a Japanese exhibition, THE MIKADO is hatched, and the D’Oyly Carte Company fills the Savoy Theater with on-stage preparation and backstage intrigue. Like Gilbert & Sullivan themselves, Leigh brings marvelous new vitality to a classic form.”- New York Film Festival (1999, 160 min.)
