The quest for the garter includes several badly confused sets of married couples, a comedy butler, a French maid, and a generous assortment of lines at which large ladies in the audience laugh hysterically and nudge their companions viciously. The title is, in itself, a complete scenario.

'There is little use in retelling the plot of ‘Getting Gertie's Garter’, even if one could keep track of it. But when it is performed by an all-white troupe of actors dressed and made up as Asians, it shifts from a brilliant comedy of manners to, as Asian-American actress and blogger Erin Quill says, a ‘racist piece of crap.’” One way companies have been addressing this is to restage the play in an entirely different setting, retaining the biting satire while excising the careless racism.

In response to the Seattle controversy, Wall Street Journal columnist Jeff Yang argued in a guest opinion piece for CNN that The Mikado’s “biting satire and splendidly silly stage play make it quite possibly Gilbert and Sullivan’s greatest work. Controversy around a Seattle production in 2014 made national news and in 2015 the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players cancelled a planned production in response to outrage.

Since as early as the nineties, The Mikado has been prominent in the broader discussion about representation and cultural appropriation, and more specifically about yellowface and Orientalism in the arts.

Savoy opera house