ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS FOR FEB. 13, 2024
Controversy at Shakespeare's Globe, the American co-starring in a new Korean musical, The Shawshank Redemption in Mandarin, and more
Welcome to your guide to the global theater industry, Jaques, the news organization (consisting of, uh, me) which received more than one message Sunday evening pointing out the similarity between the roller skating sequence in Usher’s Super Bowl halftime show and a certain musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. For an apparently on-trend read about that musical, Starlight Express, check out last week’s SPOTLIGHT STORY:
This week: a look at international theater news around the world. (New to Jaques? Learn more here.)
ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS
Shakespeare’s Globe in London is under fire, stirring up controversy with the decision to cast a non-disabled actor—who is also the Globe’s artistic director—in the title role of Richard III. The Disabled Artists Alliance, a recently formed group of 167 disabled artists and allies and 19 theater groups, sent a second open letter calling for a recast of the Shakespearean protagonist who is repeatedly described in the play’s text as disabled. The DAA argues that the influential theater company’s choice is a step toward the “erasure and rewriting of Richard’s core disabled identity” as it also closes off an opportunity for an underrepresented group of artists. For its part, the Globe has said that actor and A.D. Michelle Terry will play Richard with no visible disability as part of an exploration of “abuse of power and pathological narcissism” in the play. In recent years, disabled actors have played Richard III in multiple U.K. productions, and here in the U.S., the Tony-nominated disabled actor Katy Sullivan is currently headlining the show at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.
An interview in the Korea Times highlights an American actress co-starring in the world premiere of the new Korean musical Il Tenore. In the show about Korea’s first operatic tenor, U.S.-born Brooke Prince plays the role of a real-life missionary and music teacher; her casting, writes journalist Kwon Mee-yoo, “is particularly noteworthy in Korea’s predominantly ethnically homogeneous theater scene.” The article also quotes a statement from the production team that reads, “Typically, Korean musicals might cast Korean actors in diverse roles, often regardless of race or nationality. However, for Il Tenore, set in 1930s Korea, authenticity demanded a Western actor for Madame Becker. This choice was vital to maintain historical and cultural integrity.” Running in Seoul through Feb. 25, Il Tenore is produced by OD Company and Chunsoo Shin, also producing the incoming Broadway musical The Great Gatsby.
Disney Theatrical Group’s Hercules is gearing up for its Hamburg bow in March, and a curtain-raiser in the German-language edition of Glamour underscores the show’s depiction of empowered women. Writer Hannah Madlener points to the nuanced characterization of the story’s love interest, Meg: “She's complex, more of an anti-heroine and has a depth that you don’t necessarily find in Disney love interests,” she writes (via Google Translate). She points to the show’s Muses, too, as a step forward: “They are also people of color and have different body types—something you don’t see that often in German musicals.”
Find out how Hercules marks a shift in Disney Theatrical’s overall global strategy in this newsletter from November:
After a stint in Riyadh last year, Broadway Entertainment Group’s non-replica global tour of The Phantom of the Opera has lined up a run in Dubai (Feb. 22-March 24). Along with Abu Dhabi (where the international tour of Hamilton just wrapped up its run), Dubai and Riyadh are three of the major stops in what many producers and presenters are hoping will shape up into a solid Middle East circuit for Broadway-style musicals. Phantom was last in Dubai in 2019; after its 2024 run there it’ll move on to Sofia, Bulgaria (April 11-21).
A Chinese-language play adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption launched a China tour last month. Directed by Zhang Guoli, the show is a Mandarin translation of the 2009 English-language adaptation by Owen O'Neill and David Johns, based on the original short story by Stephen King. The cast of 11 is made up entirely of Mandarin-speaking Western actors. Production company Longma Entertainment’s tour played short runs in Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai in January with more stops on the way.
As four new homegrown musicals premiere across the country this month, a piece in the Toronto Star details the current surge of new musical development in Canada. Writer Joshua Chong spotlights two new shows at Sheridan College in Ontario alongside larger-scale Toronto premieres of Soulpepper’s De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail and, at Coal Mine Theatre, a retelling of The Bacchae called Dion: A Rock Opera. Chong writes, “A new Canadian musical used to be a rarity: too expensive, too unwieldy for producers to invest their time and money. … But the sector began to shift following the success of Come From Away.”
A new Swedish production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company follows the precedent set by the Tony-winning Broadway revival, flipping the gender of the lead role to female. Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm is the first in the world to present the adaptation outside London and New York. Maria Sid directs a new Swedish translation.
With the new movie version fresh in theater fans’ minds, Mean Girls will play CDMX in June. The English-language, touring production of the show, currently on the road in the U.S., has added a stop in Mexico City presented by Gou Producciones, which is also bringing in Beetlejuice for a run later this summer.
IN NEXT WEEK’S SPOTLIGHT STORY
It’s no secret that megamusicals like Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Lion King all played significant roles in opening up international theater markets. But often overlooked on that list is Chicago, which has been a stealth trailblazer in its own way. Be here next week for the inside story.