THOUGHTS OF A COLORED MAN Confirmed for Broadway Run at the Golden Theatre
Thoughts of a Colored Man, the new play by Keenan Scott II, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, will play Broadway’s Golden Theatre
Stage Adaptation of Oscar-Winning Spirited Away Will Premiere in Japan
A world premiere stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning animated film Spirited Away will debut in Japan. Tony and Olivier winner John Caird (Nicholas Nickelby) adapts and directs the production, with performances slated to begin in February 2022 at Tokyo’s Imperial Theatre.
Spirited Away (original title: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) follows Chihiro, a 10-year-old moving with her parents to a new home. After they get lost in a mysterious world and her parents are turned into pigs, Chihiro (to be double-cast with Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi) must survive in the strange land and return to the human world.
Following the run at the Imperial, Spirited Away aims to tour the country throughout the spring and summer, playing Osaka, Fukuoka, Sapporo, and Nagoya.
INTERVIEW: How 1 Man Directs Japan’s New The Phantom of the Opera Via Zoom From New York
“I have for many years now regarded Miyazaki Hayao as one of the pre-eminent geniuses of world cinema and the greatest ever proponent of the anime form,” says Caird. “I share a belief in all the most dominant themes of [Miyazaki’s] work, themes that are at the core of the Sen to Chihiro world—care for the environment, reverence for nature, a belief in the force of the good spirits within us, and the empowerment of young women and men to change the world for the better.”
“We, Hayao and I, both liked John’s vision. He is a person we can trust. I am looking forward to seeing Chihiro grow on stage under his direction,” said Studio Ghibli’s Toshio Suzuki, the film’s producer. “I could tell how much he adores this story from his delighted face when I gave him a No-Face (Kaonashi) piggy-bank.”
VIDEO: Go Inside the Revival for Encores! LOVE LIFE with Victoria Clark, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kate Baldwin & More
The third installment ofEncores Inside the RevivalfeaturesdirectorVictoria Clark,Encores MusicDirectorRob BermanandConsulting Producer for Musical Theater,and previousEncores Artistic DirectorJackViertelas theyrevisit,Love Lifea year later anddiscuss their process of imagining Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerners rarely seen1948 musical.
Hamilton to Get Funko Pop Collection of Vinyl Figurines
Collectible vinyl figurine maker Funko Pop has announced a collection of figurines and keychains based on the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical Hamilton, to release in June.
The collection includes four-inch figurines of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Aaron Burr, and all three Schuyler sisters, depicted as played in the original Broadway cast by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Christopher Jackson, Leslie Odom Jr., Renée Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, and Jasmine Cephas Jones, respectively. The figurines also feature Paul Tazewell’s Tony-winning costume designs. There will also be three-inch keychain versions of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Aaron Burr, and Angelica Schuyler.
The figures will be available from retailers that sell Funko Pop figurines, including the official Hamilton merchandise store. A blue coat–wearing variant of Alexander Hamilton will be exclusive to Walmart.
With figurines representing a wide array of fandoms, Funko Pop is no stranger to musical theatre. Earlier releases have included characters from Little Shop of Horrors, Grease, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid. All of Funko’s theatrical figurines have been a part of either their Movies or Disney lines, and have been visually styled based on how the characters appear in the musicals’ film adaptations. While the Hamilton collection is also technically part of Funko’s Movies collection, its film (on Disney+) being a captured stage performance makes its Funko Pop collection the first created around characters as they appeared on the stage.
VIDEO: On This Day, February 23- Happy Birthday Josh Gad & Robert Lopez!
It’s a double birthday today as we wish EGOT winning composer, Robert Lopez, and his Frozen and Book of Mormon colleague, Tony-nominee Josh Gad, a very Happy Birthday
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theatre History: February 23
1960 The Dublin Gate Theatre hears Chimes at Midnight. Orson Welles directs the play, which he adapted from works by William Shakespeare and Raphael Holinshed.
1966 Sybil Thorndike and Athene Seyler are the poisoning sisters in a revival of Joseph Kesselring‘s Arsenic and Old Lace at London’s Vaudeville Theatre.
1967 Fortune and Men’s Eyes exposes the violence in prison. John Herbert’s forthright play runs at the Actors Playhouse for 382 performances. Bill Moor and Robert Christian star.
1974 It’s a Total Eclipse at the Chelsea Theatre Center in Brooklyn, New York. Christopher Hampton‘s play runs four weeks.
1997 The Broadway revival of Grease closes at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre… kind of. The production was slated to close to make way for an Annie revival. But, when Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s Whistle Down the Wind postponed its Martin Beck Theatre engagement, Annie opted for the larger theatre. Grease goes on hiatus today as scheduled, but reopens April 8 before finally closing January 25, 1998.
2005 Tom Patterson, 84, the visionary Canadian who had the idea to create a theatre festival in the Ontario town of Stratford, dies in Toronto after a long illness.
2006 Harry Connick Jr. and Kelli O’Hara star in a revival of The Pajama Game at the American Airlines Theatre. The limited engagement runs for 129 performances and wins the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.
2012 Classic Stage Company‘s production of Bertolt Brecht‘s Galileo, starring F. Murray Abraham as the persecuted scientist, opens Off-Broadway.
2017 Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford star in a semi-staged revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine‘s Sunday in the Park with George. The production reopens the Hudson Theatre, which first opened its doors in 1903 but had not housed a Broadway production since 1968.
Today’s Birthdays: Joseph Allen (1873-1952). Peter Fonda (1939-2019). Joop Van Den Ende (b. 1942). Robert Lopez (b. 1975). Josh Gad (b. 1981).
Flip through photos from the 2017 Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park with George: