The Lord High Executioner Hijacks Up+Adam | OperaSLO’s The Mikado | Up+Adam

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Opera San Luis Obispo is going GRAND, and apparently nobody told the Lord High Executioner that Adam was conducting an interview.

Brian Asher Alhadeff and Luana join Up+Adam for a look inside OperaSLO’s massive production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, coming to the Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo October 17 and 18. We’re talking a full OperaSLO Grand Orchestra, an internationally acclaimed cast, enormous sets, ballet, and a chorus that grows to roughly 70 performers with the addition of 30 local kids who trained through OperaSLO’s summer opera camp. Those young performers are not getting a watered-down experience either. They’re stepping onto the stage alongside the professional cast and chorus.

Then the interview gets hijacked.

Actor John Laird arrives fully in character as Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, a man with the wonderfully inconvenient job of executing people despite being far too humane to actually execute anyone. Ko-Ko explains how flirting landed him on the execution list, why becoming executioner solved that particular problem, dismisses one of Adam’s guests from the interview, discovers headphones, refuses to sing without his orchestra, and assures us he has never even killed a bluebottle. It is exactly the kind of controlled chaos Gilbert and Sullivan would probably appreciate.

Underneath all the spectacle and absurdity is what makes The Mikado surprisingly durable: a comedy about bureaucracy, power, hypocrisy, ridiculous rules, and what happens when systems start mattering more than the people living inside them. And OperaSLO is bringing a huge piece of the Central Coast arts community together to tell it. The official production features stage direction by Marcy Irving, choreography by Drew Silvaggio, and the OperaSLO Grand Orchestra conducted by Brian Asher Alhadeff.

The Mikado plays Saturday, October 17 and Sunday, October 18, 2026, at 2 PM at the Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo. The PAC lists the production as family friendly for ages 5 and up.

• GET TICKETS: The Mikado at Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo

• LEARN MORE: Opera San Luis Obispo’s The Mikado

• FOLLOW: OperaSLO on Instagram @opera_slo

Saturday & Sunday, October 17 & 18, 2026

Both performances at 2 PM