It was revealed on January 20th that a stage adaptation of Studio Ghibli's animated film (directed by Hayao Miyazaki), "Spirited Away," will be performed in Shanghai, China from July 14th to August 3rd of this year at the Shanghai Culture Plaza.
The venue, Shanghai Cultural Plaza, is characterized by the fact that all of its main facilities are underground, and is the world's largest underground theater. It has 1,949 seats and mainly hosts domestic and international plays, musicals, ballets, etc., but this will be the largest-ever Chinese performance in Japanese with a Japanese cast.
Toho's overseas productions include the musical "Gone with the Wind" (original title: Scarlett, written by Kazuo Kikuta) in London, England in 1972 and Los Angeles, USA in 1973, as well as local productions with local casts and in the local language in Korea and other countries such as "Roman Holiday," "Marie Antoinette," "Lady Bess," and "Your Lie in April." This will be the company's first attempt to stage a play in Japanese in China using a production that was performed in Japan. The cast for the Shanghai performance will be announced at a later date.
"Spirited Away" is an animated feature film released in 2001, depicting the story of a young girl named Chihiro who gets lost in a bathhouse called "Aburaya" for the gods in a mysterious world, and grows stronger as she goes along. The play was adapted and directed by John Caird, who also adapted and directed the world premiere of the musical "Les Miserables." The role of Chihiro is alternated between Kamishiraishi, Kanna Hashimoto, Kawaei Rina, and Fukuchi Momoko.
The world premiere of the play will open in March 2022 at the Imperial Theater (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), and in 2024, it will start at the Imperial Theater in March, tour Japan from April to June, and in parallel, the company will travel to the UK, where it will perform 135 performances at the London Coliseum from April to August. The London performance will be the largest overseas performance in Japanese with a Japanese cast in the history of theater, and the first in history for a performance sponsored by Toho. The venue, which has a seating capacity of about 2,300, was filled to capacity every day, attracting about 300,000 people.
