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Spirited Away Stage Play Comes to London's West End from April 2024
posted on by Andrew Osmond
The play is listed on the theatre website with a link for visitors to sign up for priority booking. The play is 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."
According to the westendtheatre.com website, the play will be presented in Japanese, with English captions. It is adapted by John Caird, co-adapted by Maoko Imai and features the original score from the film version by Joe Hisaishi. The cast will include the two Chihiro actresses, Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi.
Other credits given on the site include 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.
Toshio Suzuki of Studio Ghibli is quoted on the site as saying, "I wish to express my deepest respect to all involved in the creation of this monumental piece of theatre. I really look forward to Spirited Away being enjoyed by audiences in London.”
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.
GKIDS theatrically screened a recorded performance of both versions of the stage play in North America.
The London run of Spirited Away will follow the Royal Shakespeare Company's stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro at London's Barbican theatre, which ran from October 2022 to January 2023 and will return to the Barbican for another run from November 2023 to March 2024.
In addition, a stage version of Makoto Shinkai's The Garden of Words, made by Whole Hog Theatre together with the Tokyo anime stage production company Nelke Planning, will begin on Thursday August 10 at London's Park Theatre in Finsbury Park (tickets), running to September 9.
Spirited Away was previously the highest-grossing Japanese film worldwide until Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train surpassed the record. Spirited Away remains the only non-English-language title to win the Academy Awards' Best Animated Feature award, which it earned in 2003.
