Forum - View topicNew Black Butler musical announced, covering Emerald Witch Arc, and more musical news from Japan
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RegSuzaku
Posts: 279 Location: Ikebukuro |
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Since it hasn't been posted as news... they've announced a musical of the Emerald Witch arc of Black Butler. Tateishi Toshiki returns as Sebastian, and Onoda Ryunosuke will be playing Wolfram. He's a TeniMyu graduate who's currently playing Javert in Les Miserables. He'd played Enjolras before, and he's been in a lot of other musicals, including Fist of the North Star. I saw him as Javert, he was really good!
(Oh, if anyone wants to know more about the Enjolras in that video, his name is Kinouchi Kento, he was Franky in the Spy x Family musical, and he was in the ensemble in the original cast of the Death Note musical. Last year, he was in an amazing musical called Cross Road: The Devil's Violinist Paganini, which deserves an anime. (By the way, the other Paganini in the video is Aiba Hiroki, another TeniMyu graduate and former Enjolras, as well as the voice of Vil in Twisted Wonderland. The musical is written by Fujisawa Bun-O, the author of an anime called Mars Red, and also the Voicarion series, which are reading plays that often have a lot of famous seiyuu in the casts. Mars Red and Cross Road both started out as reading plays performed by seiyuu. Since Cross Road is also about a devil contract in 19th century Europe, Black Butler fans might enjoy it. Yamadera Koichi was also in it.) In other Japanese stage news, Frankenstein is opening this week, starring Kobayashi Ryota (Tanjiro in the first few Demon Slayer stage plays, and also a major character in the My Hero Academia stage plays) and Nakagawa Akinori (an amazing musical actor who played the devil Amduscias in Cross Road, and whose manga-related roles include Tetsuro in Galaxy Express 999, Cesare in Cesare: Il Creatore che ha distrutto, and Snoopy in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown) as Victor Frankenstein / Jacques; and Kato Kazuki (another TeniMyu graduate and Twisted Wonderland voice actor (he plays Malleus), also the voice of Fersen in the new Rose of Versailles movie) and Shima Taisei as Henry Dupre / The Monster. Takarazuka graduate Asaka Manato plays Ellen (Victor's older sister) and Eva. (Wait, who are Jacques and Eva?... good question!) Yes, these are events in Japan, but all of these productions besides Les Mis release full video recordings. For Black Butler (and TeniMyu for that matter), since they're 2.5D, a DVD/Blu-ray release is almost guaranteed. Cross Road is an original Japanese musical, and Frankenstein is originally from Korea. Both countries are a lot more relaxed about filming rights than US and UK producers, so while recordings of Broadway and West End musicals in Japan are almost non-existent (outside of Takarazuka, who record everything, including the only official bluray of the stage version of Anastasia), Asian and European musicals get recorded performances released pretty often. There are two DVDs of Frankenstein from the 2020 run, one starring Nakagawa and Kato, who are returning, and one starring Kakizawa Hayato (Light in the Death Note musical) and Konishi Ryosei (both of whom, coincidentally, are currently in the musical Bonnie and Clyde. (Incidentally, Broadway star Jeremy Jordan has also played both Light and Clyde, and the musicals are from the same composer). The Illusionist is finishing its tour soon. It's a new musical based on a 2006 movie, with the title role played by Kaiho Naoto (the dub voice of Eric in The Little Mermaid (live action) and Fiyero in Wicked; and Quasimodo in the Japanese cast recording of the U.S. stage version (not the earlier German version) of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame). The musical of Descending Stories (Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju) is also finishing its tour soon, and they've announced a stream. Yamazaki Ikusaburo is reprising his role from the drama adaptation. The other two leads are Takarazuka graduate Asumi Rio, and Furukawa Yuta (the Black Butler musicals' second Sebastian, and the fourth actor in the lead role of the musical Mozart!) (Previous Mozarts include Yamazaki, and Nakagawa Akinori, the aforementioned Victor Frankenstein. Incidentally, I first heard of Mozart from this very site, when Black Butler and Twisted Wonderland creator Toboso Yana drew a fanart of Furukawa in the role. I've always followed musicals on Broadway and the West End, but Mozart! is almost unheard of in English, despite being one of the biggest musicals everywhere else. It was a star-making role for Nakagawa, and also for one of South Korea's top musical stars, Park Eun Tae. If you're interested, there are several recordings from Japan, as well as one from the revival in Austria in 2015. There's also a Korean recording, starring Junsu of TVXQ. Mozart! is from the same composers as Elisabeth, and there's a Korean album of Elisabeth from 2012 featuring Junsu as Der Tod, Park Eun Tae as Lucheni, and Ock Joo Hyun, one of South Korea's top stage stars who represented Korea in the multi-language concert performance of Elisabeth's major solo Ich Gehor Nur Mir. The Elisabeth from Japan there is Ichiro Maki, who was the first Der Tod in Japan in Takarazuka, and the first Elisabeth in the non-Takarazuka production. Asumi Rio and Asaka Manato have also both played Der Tod in Takarazuka.) Context digression aside, other shows opening soon: Tanz der Vampire and 1789: Les Amants de la Bastille are also opening soon. Tanz der Vampire has some famous music that seems to have been a barrier towards getting the rights to make a recording before, but 1789 has had a few recordings from Japan in the past, both Takarazuka and otherwise, and it seems likely to get another one. (There are also recordings of the original German production of Tanz der Vampire, and multiple French productions of 1789). This year, Okamiya Kurumu (Eren in the Attack on Titan musical including the tour to New York; Tsurumaru Kuninaga in the Touken Ranbu musicals; Kosei in Your Lie in April later this year) will be in 1789, playing the lead role of Ronan, a peasant who takes part in the beginnings of the French Revolution, but has a star-crossed love affair with Marie Antoinette's lady in waiting. The love affair between Marie Antoinette and Fersen forms a B-plot. (Incidentally, the actors who played Ronan before were Kato Kazuki (the aforementioned voice of Fersen in the new Rose of Versailles movie) and Koike Teppei (L in the original cast of Death Note)). Not a current live event, but the London production of Your Lie in April from last year has released a cast recording! It should be available on streaming services if you search. Original KuroMyu Sebastian (and Durarara!! theme song singer) Matsushita Yuya is also back on stage soon, starring in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots. The Broadway musical Back to the Future is also opening in Japan this week. The new Demon Slayer stage play will open later this month. Interestingly, Urai Kenji (the other original Light in Death Note) and Kato Kazuki will be in for a video appearance only. I thought ANN would have covered this, and there is an article, but it doesn't mention that their appearance is just on video. As previously mentioned, Kato is in Frankenstein this month, and Urai will be in rehearsal for A Tale of Two Cities (the 2008 Broadway flop), reprising his role from the 2012 original Japanese cast along with Inoue Yoshio (original cast Mozart! along with Nakagawa). Well, since I've mentioned all five Mozart! actors in Japan (and two in Korea), all three original cast Lights and L, and all three Sebastians, I should probably stop. I hope that bolding titles and names made this long thing easier to read. I know that theatre in Japan is something a lot of people around the world don't know a lot about, even if they follow anime, so I tried to provide context and mention mostly anime-related productions (I held back from talking about Love Never Dies and Jersey Boys, and the cast of Tanz, and which productions the other actors on that 2018 Mozart! poster are in now (the article didn't mention that Hirano Aya was in it?), and which other actors I've mentioned here have played Der Tod (and which one hasn't but I think he should (three guesses)), and...). (I am not affiliated with any of these actors or productions, I'm just a fan) |
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