ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS FOR MARCH 12, 2024
The U.K. gets a permanent Theatre Tax Relief rate, Takarazuka Revue acknowledges incidents of harassment, Kiki's Delivery Service joins the ranks of Ghibli-inspired musicals around the world, and more
Happy spring break season from Florida, where I’ve touched down briefly before embarking tomorrow on The Broadway Cruise, and welcome to Jaques, your weekly guide to the global theater industry. New to Jaques? Learn more here. And ICYMI, last week’s SPOTLIGHT STORY was all about licensing:
Before I head out to interview Bernadette Peters on the high seas and moderate starry panels in international waters, here’s my latest roundup of theater headlines from around the world.
ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS
Those of you who read my analysis of the Broadway-West End cost gap a few months back will recall that one of the things that makes the U.K. so appealing for developing musicals is a massive tax credit that, at the time I wrote that story, wasn’t certain to last. Last week, though, the U.K. government took the uncertainty out of the equation when Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced a permanent rate for the Theatre Tax Relief of 40% for non-touring shows and 45% for touring productions. That’s not quite as high as the current rate of 45% for non-touring shows and 50% for touring, but it’s pretty close. As noted by writer Georgia Luckhurst in The Stage, “The rate had been planned to taper from April 2025 (to 35% and 30% respectively) with a return to the pre-pandemic rate (25%/20%) in 2026. Fears the rate would return to pre-pandemic levels of between 20-25% had prompted a 20% reduction in the productions planned for the next financial year, and a 17% drop in the number of playing weeks, Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre had found.” In a separate story in the Stage, big names across the industry hailed the news as a “once in a generation transformational change.”
Making a new musical costs three to five times more on Broadway than it does on the West End. Here's why:
Japan’s famous, all-female theater troupe Takarazuka Revue has admitted that the company member found dead last year in a possible suicide had been subjected to power harassment within the ranks of the troupe. As detailed in a story in the Japan Times, the acknowledgment marks a reversal for Takarazuka, which previously had not recognized any bullying. That initial denial prompted the deceased’s family to make a statement enumerating 15 acts of harassment including “one instance where a senior member had purposefully pressed a hot hair iron against the member's forehead.” It hasn’t yet been determined which specific acts have been recognized by Takarazuka as harassment, but both the Japan Times story and one in the Mainichi note that that “Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Chairman Kazuo Sumi is considering stepping down as an executive of Takarazuka Revue at the end of this month, admitting supervisory responsibility over the death of the member.”
The Korea Times profiled Chunsoo Shin, the head of Korea’s OD Company, as his Broadway-bound new musical The Great Gatsby makes him Broadway’s first solo Korean lead producer. “If this attempt succeeds, it will represent a significant expansion and diversification of Broadway’s landscape,” he tells the Times. Reporter Kwon Meeyoo goes on to allude to the differences in the Korean and American producing models by noting, “Shin acknowledged the crucial role that Korean investment partners played in bringing The Great Gatsby to life, especially when it represents the first time Korean investors have actively engaged in a Broadway production to this extent. ‘It’s a pioneering experience for me as well,’ Shin said. ‘Securing funding has always been a difficult task, more so when introducing Korean investors to the Broadway scene, which is relatively new to them.’ ”
I looked at Seoul’s bustling theater market—and its industry-wide push to make an international hit—here:
Meanwhile, another Korean-backed musical making international waves, Marie Curie, will get an English-language premiere on the West End at the Charing Cross Theatre (June 1-July 28). “This marks the first time a Korean musical will be staged for a long-term performance with a local English cast and crew in the West End,” notes the Korea Times. The show is produced by Korean production company Live.
And in yet more Korean industry news: A local musical theater actor-turned-producer in Seoul, Jeong-han Ryu, has launched a new production shingle called RG Company. On its inaugural slate are the premieres of two original musicals: Nessie, a Loch Ness Monster tale from Korean creatives, and the latest from the prolific Frank Wildhorn, Mac x Beth, a new adaptation of the Scottish play set in the 1980s fashion world. A production of Wildhorn’s Cyrano is also on the docket.
You’re not imagining it—Frank Wildhorn is a busy guy:
In her latest newsletter, fellow Substacker
highlights an upcoming Japanese staging of the musical Kiki’s Delivery Service and takes the opportunity to outline the property’s long and varied theatrical life. She writes that “the world-beloved IP was first made into a musical that ran in Japan from 1993-1996. In 2016 it was adapted into a stage play on the West End. Then in 2017, a new musical version premiered by Kouki Kishimoto, with successful remounts in the 2018, 2021, and now 2024 seasons. In 2020, a Chinese license also premiered in Shanghai.” Kiki’s Delivery Service, of course, is one of the best-known titles from director Hayao Miyazaki and Japanese animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli; two more screen-to-stage adaptations of Ghibli IP, Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, have each recently drummed up international interest and are playing, or will soon play, runs in London. (Ghibli’s most recent movie, The Boy and the Heron, just picked the 2024 Oscar for animated feature.)Over in Spain, you can see evidence of Madrid’s enthusiasm for musicals in a spate of local theater coverage announcing local runs of shows from Ghost to Kinky Boots to the homegrown new musical Los Pilares De La Tierra (The Pillars of the Earth). There’s also Nostromo Live’s new production of The Producers directed by Ángel Llàcer, who’s boasting in the press about the lavishness of the production: “ ‘It was the most expensive,’ he says smiling, and it has ‘a very complicated set design.’ ”
Last week’s SPOTLIGHT STORY about licensing mentioned the popularity of small-small musicals in China. Here’s one of those: A Chinese-language production of John Caird and Paul Gordon’s Daddy Long Legs is now playing in Shanghai. The actor Gao Yang, who also appeared in the original Chinese production of the musical six years ago, now returns as both an actor and a producer.
IN NEXT WEEK’S SPOTLIGHT STORY
The new New Haven? Meet the U.K. theater that’s becoming a transatlantic hotspot for developing new plays and musicals on the way to Broadway, the West End and beyond.