Groucho Marx

Gilbert & Sullivan's comic opera +The Mikado has delighted audiences for over a century and is easily more accessible to novice listeners than the considerably more heavyweight works by the masters of the art form. During the 1950s, someone at NBC-TV had the idea to adapt the piece in edited form for the Bell Telephone Hour, with comic Groucho Marx as Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, the remainder of the cast features legitimate opera singers. Donald Voorhees conducts the Bell Telephone Orchestra with the Norman Luboff Choir providing the backing chorus. While one might expect Marx to make a leering Ko-Ko, he is actually quite tame and plays the comic role without excess, and without much vocal range. Unfortunately, Martyn Green's condensed version of +The Mikado (reduced from its normal two hours to around 50 minutes) loses a lot in the process, and this version ends up excessively talky. This long-unavailable LP may be a historical curiosity that will attract the attention of fans of Groucho Marx, but Gilbert & Sullivan fans will likely seek the real deal instead of this pretender. ~ Ken Dryden, All Music Guide