THE MIKADO PROJECT A small Asian-American theater company is trying to find a way to stage a modern version of The Mikado: A less sexist version, a queer version, a version that takes all the cultural stereotypes of Asians and inverts them. It includes a brilliant rewriting of Gilbert and Sullivan's "As Some Day It May Happen" (from The Mikado's Act 1), which will target the role of Asian-Americans in the entertainment industry ("But it doesn't really matter/From New York or from L.A./You won't work anyway") and "Three Little Maids From School" featuring gals snorting coke and taking pictures with their digital cameras. These hilarious, pointed songs beg an obvious question: Why The Mikado Project and not simply an update of The Mikado? Why a play about a fictitious theater company producing the update? For the entire first act, playwrights Doris Baizley and Ken Narasaki spell out the intentions of their conceit rather than letting the audience draw its own conclusions. However, as the play develops more depth and fewer rants, it becomes clear, under Chil Kong's direction, that the piece is concerned with doing more than replacing old stereotypes with new ones. It aims instead to flesh them out into multidimensional characters who carry with them the nuances of their lives, and who might not have survived within Gilbert and Sullivan's framework, no matter how updated. Lodestone Theatre Ensemble at GTC BURBANK (in George Izay Park), 1111-B W. Olive Ave., Burbank; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru May 20. (323) 993-7245. (Alexis Roblan)