Few Japanese stage productions have built the international following of ¡°Death Note: The Musical.¡± Adapted from the blockbuster manga, which has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, the show is now preparing for its biggest overseas test yet with a six-week?run at London¡¯s Barbican Theatre.
Produced by HoriPro and with music by Frank Wildhorn, ¡°Death Note: The Musical¡± premiered at Tokyo¡¯s Nissay Theatre in 2015. The show sold out its initial run before expanding overseas, where it has proved especially popular in South Korea. Compared to the typically-shorter Japanese performance schedules, its most recent Seoul production ran continuously for nearly eight months.
Opening July 30, a new production of ¡°Death Note: The Musical¡± is part of a broader push by Japanese theater producers to localize and expand beyond Asia and earn the kind of global recognition long enjoyed by British and American musicals.
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