Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company its first production, "The Mikado", received such a favourable response that they changed their name to Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company to more clearly reflect the new city base and repertoire of the company. In the 1980s, the company played a couple of 'guest weeks' at the Buxton Opera House with "The Mikado" and later "The Yeomen of the Guard". Under the direction of co-founder Andrew Nicklin, the company began to build a reputation for presenting updated, or "non-traditional" G&S productions. Under Nicklin, the company took "The Mikado" to The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England, in 1996,
Gilbert and Sullivan group formed in 1901 in Philadelphia, continues to perform today. In 1948, "Life" magazine reported that about 5,000 performances of Gilbert and Sullivan operas were given annually in the US, exceeding the number of performances of Shakespeare plays. After the copyrights on the operas expired, other professional companies were free to perform and record the operas. Many performing companies arose to produce the works, such as Gilbert and Sullivan for All in Britain and Light Opera Works in the U.S., and existing companies, such as English National Opera, Carl Rosa Opera Company and Australian Opera, added Gilbert and Sullivan to