Down by Tokyo Bay, most people think of the industrial wasteland of Hamamatsucho merely as a convenient stop on the Yamanote Line, a station for changing onto the Haneda-bound monorail en route to faraway places. Theatergoers, though, and especially lovers of big, slick, Western-style productions, know that a mere eight-minute walk from the station takes them to the mecca of musicals in Japan -- the Shiki Theatre.
This huge edifice amid a blighted landscape stands as a gleaming symbol of the success of the Shiki (Four Seasons) Theatre Company, founded in 1953 by now 70-year-old Keita Asari. Inside, it houses two, 1,000-seater auditoriums -- one called Spring, which stages long-running, contemporary foreign musicals; the other called Autumn, for original musicals and plays, as well as retro musicals.
And to celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, last month the company opened Theatre Freedom right next door. The eighth of its theaters around Japan, this smaller, 500-seat house has an atmosphere quite unlike its neighbors. Entering by way of a cobbled path, inside the audience encounters a ruby-red color scheme, relieved here and there by the company's motif -- an Art Nouveau-style bunch of grapes. Though everything is new, it all feels velvety and warm, and reminded this visitor of one of the small traditional theaters in London's West End.