Could it be that the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players have hired Stephen Davis or Sheikh Rachid to police their productions for signs of politically incorrect sentiment? We ask because of the recent news that the spineless superintendents of that troupe have decided to cancel a planned production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s masterpiece The Mikado “after it drew criticism over how its largely non-Asian cast planned to portray the stereotyped Japanese characters and culture that are often seen as central to the work.”

We “never intended to give offense,” whined David Wannen, the troupe’s executive director. It should go without saying that The Mikado, despite its setting in a fantasyland version of Japan, is about the foibles of Victorian Britain. But political correctness never sleeps. Speaking of politically correct organizations, The New York Times, reporting the news, approvingly added that “many arts organizations are rethinking how they stage classic works that portray different races and cultures onstage in ways that are now seen as racist or offensive, in an effort to keep the jarring aspects from getting in the way of what makes those works great.” So get to work, lads; excise all those “jarring aspects” from the literature and art works of the past. It’s a big task, but look at what ISIS has accomplished in just a few short years!