The 1940s Big Band-influenced Hot Mikado, the swing version of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta, The Mikado, opens Nov. 10 at the Sacramento Community Center Theater for a run through Nov. 15.

Ross Lehman (Broadway's recent Forum revival) heads the national touring cast as Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, reprising a role he created in productions at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, and in London's West End. He received an Olivier Award nomination for his performance in the West End.

Chandra Currelley plays onetime battle-axe Katisha as a vampy Billie Holliday type in lyricist-librettist David Bell's adaptation of the satire of English government (the Japan-set operetta premiered in England in 1885). Bell assigns an Andrews Sisters identity to the "Three Little Maids" and a Cab Calloway persona to The Mikado.

Tickets are $10-$60. The Community Center Theater is at 1301 L Street in downtown Sacramento. Call (916) 264-5181.

-- By Kenneth Jones