The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players rehearsing “The Mikado” in Manhattan.Credit...Julieta Cervantes for The New York Times One of the most passionately debated stage works of our time is a 131-year-old operetta. Is Gilbert and Sullivan’s enduringly popular “The Mikado” a droll satire of Victorian England? A racist caricature of Japan? Some amalgam of the two? Recent revivals have ended up in
![Reviving ‘The Mikado’ in a Balancing Act of Taste (Published 2016)](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/993ccda83bbd86000da9110b8a3bb741e85cdf8b/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fstatic01.nyt.com%2Fimages%2F2016%2F12%2F26%2Farts%2F26ORIENTALISTJP1%2F26ORIENTALISTJP1-facebookJumbo.jpg%3Fyear%3D2016%26h%3D550%26w%3D1050%26s%3D1fd5062e83043596f11b92c2d08332cc48d8fb7e7a67bfa7732b83e229f91c59%26k%3DZQJBKqZ0VN)