Toho co, Ltd, Les Misérables
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Toho co, Ltd.
Among several musical productions in 2013, Les Misérables, as was expected, drew most attention. As is well known, it is a West End musical that has remained popular since its Japan premiere in 1987. This time, based on the new version that started off in London back in 2009, drastic revisions were made in the staging and it was presented to the Japanese audience for the first time. Due to the expectations from the musical fans and the extraordinary hit of the film version of
Les Misérables
in December 2012, the new version aroused the interest of people who usually do not go to see musicals. Thanks to these factors, the performances at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo between May and July, and the following tour to Hakata-za Theatre in Fukuoka, Festival Hall in Osaka and Chunichi Theatre and Tagoya, and the triumphant return to the Imperial Theatre were all enormously successful.
Laurence Conner and James Powell directed the new version of Les Misérables, and it was a visual production that drew fully on projected images (designed by Matt Kinley). It took a concrete and clear-cut approach that stimulated the audience’s imagination through the use of minimal set and dramatic lighting, which was exactly opposite to the old version. It was accessible to the audience who came to see the show after seeing the film version. It was accessible to the audience who came to see the show after seeing the film version. On the other hand, considering the feelings of the longtime fans of ’Les Mis’, the co-directors added detailed directions that were unique to the Japanese version, and this effort turned out to be effective. It reminded us that musicals are live stage performances and therefore they evolve by receiving influence from the audience.
Review by Hitomi Hagio, translated by Sumida Michiyo.
From the the Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute’s Theatre Yearbook 2014. This, along with all volumes published in the years since, are available to read for free in English at http://iti-japan.or.jp/en/theatre-yearbook/.
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