News
Kiki's Delivery Service Novels Get Stage Musical in June
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
A stage musical adaptation of Eiko Kadono's fantasy novel series Kiki's Delivery Service (Majo no Takkyūbin) has been green-lit. Moka Kamishiraishi (live-action HaruChika) will play Kiki, and Johnny's Jr. member Aran Abe (Kin Kyori Renai: Season Zero) will play Tombo. Kōki Kishimoto is directing the play and penning the script, and Ryōta Kojima is composing the music. The musical will have two runs, with the first run on June 1-4 at the New National Theater in Tokyo, and the second run on August 31-September at the Umeda Arts Theater in Osaka.
The six novel volumes of Majo no Takkyūbin follow the coming of age of Kiki with her black cat Jiji. Kadono began the main novel series in 1985 and ended it in 2009. Kadono published a side-story centering on the character Osono in 2014.
Hayao Miyazaki directed Studio Ghibli's famous 1989 anime film adaptation of the first novel. The late theater director Yukio Ninagawa also directed a stage musical adaptation from 1993 to 1996. The first two novels inspired a live-action film starring Fūka Koshiba in 2014, and a stage play adaptation opened at London's West End last year.
Annick Press published the first novel with an English translation by Lynne E. Riggs in 2003. That same year, Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Disney released Studio Ghibli's film on DVD in North America.
Source: Stage Natalie
