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London Stage Run of Spirited Away Ends Today

The London run of the Spirited Away stage play ends today. The play had been running since April 30 at the London Coliseum theatre in London's West End, close to Leicester Square station.

The play featured multiple performers in each role on different dates. They included Romi Park, who voiced Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist and Hange in Attack on Titan, as one of the three actors playing Yubaba. Another Yubaba actor was Mari Natsuki, who voiced Yubaba in the original Spirited Away film.

One of the four Chihiro actors was Mone Kamishiraishi, who voiced Mitsuha in Makoto Shinkai's your name. One of the three Haku actors was Kotarō Daigo, who voiced Hodaka in Shinkai's Weathering With You.

Rina Kawaei, another of the Chihiro actors, voiced the heroine Hinako in Masaaki Yuasa's Ride Your Wave. Another of the Chihiros was Kanna Hashimoto, who is famed in Japan as a model and a former member of the idol group Rev. From DEL.

Of the three actors playing Kamaji the spider-man, one is Tomorowo Taguchi, who played the transforming salaryman in Shinya Tsukamoto's live-action films Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Tetsuo II: Body Hammer.

The play was described as follows:

"Studio Ghibli's Oscar-winning Spirited Away, created by legendary animator and director Hayao Miyazaki is re-imagined for the stage by Olivier and Tony award-winning director of Les Misérables, John Caird. The original Japanese cast perform this extraordinary production with wildly imaginative puppets, dazzling set and costume designs and a live orchestra playing the magnificent original film score by Joe Hisaishi."

The play was presented in Japanese, with English captions. It was adapted by John Caird, co-adapted by Maoko Imai and featured the original score from the film version by Joe Hisaishi.

Other credites included score arrangement by Brad Haak (Mary Poppins), set design by Jon Bausor (Bat Out of Hell), puppets by Toby Olié (Pinocchio at the National Theatre), choreography by Shigehiro Ide (NODA MAP), and costumes by Sachiko Nakahara. The play was made in association with Studio Ghibli, co-produced with PW Productions Ltd and presented by Toho Co., LTD.

The stage play ran in Japan with two different sets of cast members. The play's first run debuted at Tokyo's Imperial Theatre from February to March 2022, then went on tour to Osaka in April, Fukuoka in May, Sapporo in June, and Nagoya in June and July, and then returned to Nagoya in August.

Tony and Olivier Award-winning director and the Royal Shakespeare Company's Honorary Associate Director John Caird (Les Misérables, Nicholas Nickleby, Daddy Long Legs) wrote and directed the production.