COVID-19 plays the spoiler as stages try to reopen in Japan
Even in the age of COVID-19, the show must go on, and go on it will. Theater lovers suffering from withdrawal symptoms as a result of cancellations prompted by the coronavirus will be relieved to learn that a number of companies are busily formulating plans ...
Japan's acting troupes turn your home into a stage
With the curtains remaining closed at theaters across Japan, some acting troupes are adopting new methods of reaching their audiences.
Conquering history and conquering the stage with Ken Watanabe
Japanese actor Ken Watanabe returns to 'Pizarro' 35 years after his last performance in the play, this time in the lead role as the titular Spanish conquistador.
Updating 'Romeo and Juliet' in a bid to fight prejudice in Japan
Wishing Chong brings an all-male version of 'Romeo and Juliet,' set in post-war Western Japan, to the stage in Tokyo.
Bringing Haruki Murakami's 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' to Japan's stages
Murakami's enigmatic masterpiece has been adapted for Japanese stage for the first time, with Songha and Daichi Watanabe taking on the role of Toru Okada.
The art of condensing Shakespeare's oeuvre
Shuntaro Fujita brings "Tempo 12-nen no Shakespeare" to Tokyo, modernising a story that encompases elements from each of the Bard's 37 plays.
To kill or not to kill: that is the question in 'Death Note: The Musical'
A new version of "Death Note: The Musical" takes to the stage in Tokyo, with hopes of challenging people's perceptions of justice.
Yoshitaka Hori: The man on a mission to export Japanese musicals
HoriPro Inc. CEO and Chairman, Yoshitaka Hori, wants to take Japanese musicals out to the world and compete with the likes of Broadway and the West End.
'Fortune' updates Faust's devilish deal
Playwright Simon Stephens turns to ideas of terror for his British-Japanese transformative theatrical trip.
The year that musicals took on Japanese stages
While song and dance kept audiences flocking to theaters in Japan in 2019, the non-musical side was kept afloat by established dramatists rather than new faces
Capitalizing on the pull of experimental Japanese theater
The latest play by Shuntaro Matsubara, "Memorial," sees the playwright team up with a new director for the first time, after a string of successes working with Motoi Miura
Bringing a Greek tragedy to 21st-century Japan
Theater director Kunio Sugihara unveils his latest work, an adaptation of John Barton's 10-hour epic, "The Greeks"
