New York’s Broadway and London’s West End are losing their grip on the imaginations of Japanese musical fans, with productions from unsung locations including the Czech Republic, South Korea and Germany now competing for billing in Japan’s theaters.The Imperial Garden Theater in Tokyo minted two new musicals in its centennial year: "The Three Musketeers," an original work from the Netherlands based on Alexandre Dumas’ story, and "I've Never Been to New York" from Germany.
Ironically, the German musical, featuring songs by one of the leading talents on the German scene, Udo Juergens, has more than a touch of classic Broadway about it, with strong reminders of Cole Porter’s "Anything Goes.”
Another Tokyo hit was the French production "Romeo and Juliet," an adaption of Shakespeare’s tragedy, which played at the all-female Takarazuka Revue and at the Umeda Arts Theater.
“Hamlet,” a musical from the Czech Republic influenced by 1970s British rock, began playing at Theatre Creation in Hibiya this month. Across town, at the Mitsukoshi Theater in Nihonbashi, "Parure," a 6-year-old South Korean hit combining comedy, Korean pop music and a story about the lives of people renting in the backstreets, will run until Feb. 16.
Musicals account for about 60 percent of tickets bought at all live theatrical performances in Japan, according to Entertainment White Papers published in the 2000s by the PIA Research Institute. Annual attendance at musicals across the country surpassed 8 million in 2005.
via AJW
