ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS FOR MARCH 18, 2025
Reuters says West End beats Broadway, Mexican talent in America gets a press spotlight, Wicked returns to South Korea, and more
Welcome to the latest edition of ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS, my regular roundup of theater headlines from around the world. New to Jaques? Check out this handy explainer.
The West End has outpaced Broadway’s post-lockdown recovery thanks in large part to the U.K.’s hefty tax incentives, declares a recent story in Reuters. “London’s West End theatres are enjoying record ticket sales and drawing millions of pounds of investment as a pandemic-era tax break that will become permanent next month persuades some producers to choose Britain over Broadway,” write reporters Barbara Lewis and Muvija M, providing the attendant facts and figures. “Producers cite lower costs in London than on Broadway, which has a comparable but less generous tax scheme, as well as the attraction of one of the world’s richest theatre traditions.” In addition to that U.K. tax scheme—which offers tax relief on up to 45% of touring show costs—overall production costs are much lower in London, according to, uh, me: “[P]roducing a musical on Broadway costs 3-5 times as much as in the West End, according to an analysis by Gordon Cox,” notes the story. The economic lure of the U.K. is so strong, in fact, that the West End is booked solid, which is making Britain’s regional theaters a strong option: “With producers saying there are not enough West End venues to meet demand, those [regional] theatres could get a boost if more Broadway productions head to Britain.”
Here’s that analysis they mention in Reuters—it’s been the most popular story on this newsletter’s website since I first posted it:
For an example of the kind of boost that American producers could bring to the U.K. regions, just look to the recent announcement that Disney Theatrical Group’s musical adaptation of The Greatest Showman will premiere in Bristol, England, in spring 2026. Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Aladdin) will direct and choreograph, with tunes from the film supplemented by new songs by the movie’s songwriting duo, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen). The show will play the Bristol Hippodrome, where DTG’s Mary Poppins also began life. Perhaps the standout tidbit from the press release concerns the production’s focus on U.K. talent: “A casting search is underway across the U.K. and Ireland for this brand-new production, discovering the stage talent who will play the roles originated by the stars of the film. Open auditions will take place throughout March and April.”
Disney Theatrical Group has made a habit of developing new work abroad. Top DTG execs tell me why in this early edition of Jaques:
As Broadway gears up for its annual mad dash to the Tony Awards, Mexican talent is getting a spotlight in the Spanish-language press. “As the United States tightens its measures and increases deportations of undocumented immigrants, the theater serves as a platform for Mexican actors and producers who tell their stories on Broadway in plays such as Buena Vista Social Club and, starting in April, Real Women Have Curves, as a form of resistance,” writes Sughey Baños in El Universal (and translated by Google Translate). Producer-composer Jaime Lozano and actors Mauricio Martínez and Sebastián Treviño are among those interviewed; so is Lozano’s wife, Florencia Cuenca, who gets her own features in Publimetro and in El Diario de Sonora. The daughter of well-known Mexican actor-comedian Enrique Cuenca, Florencia moved with Lozano to New York a decade ago and is now one of the stars of Real Women Have Curves (which has music by Mexican singer-songwriter Joy Huerta of Jesse & Joy).
With the first part of the Wicked movie driving box office back home in New York, a Broadway replica production of Wicked will play three cities in South Korea later this year. Produced locally by the major Korean production company S&Co., Wicked hasn’t been seen there since 2013. The show lands in Seoul starting in July before heading to Busan and then Daegu for an engagement that opens in January 2026, according to a story in Chosun Biz. It’s all part of a tour that “will perform in South Korea after Singapore in March, following [a previous engagement in] Australia.”
Speaking of Korea: Lempicka recently had auditions for a 2026 production in Seoul. The ambitious musical about the Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka played a short run on Broadway last year.
Dutch musical theater actress Maya Hakvoort won the 2025 Shanghai Magnolia Stage Performance Award, making her one of the few foreign artists to have won the Chinese trophy in its 33-year history. She took home the award for her performance in Lady M, described by Kun Zhang in China Daily as “a musical production in English by Shanghai Culture Square and Xu Jun Drama and Musical” and “the first English-language musical production created in China.” Hakvoort headed the international cast of the show, written by British playwrights James Beeny and Gina Georgio for the premiere last year at the MIFA 1862 Theater in Shanghai. Zhang notes the Hakvoort “has built a solid fan base in China, especially in Shanghai,” for local performances including the German musical Elisabeth (in which she played the title character) and a series of popular concerts of musical theater songs.
The homegrown, enduring French musical Notre-Dame de Paris will tour Taiwan this spring. Based on the Victor Hugo novel known in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (and a completely different musical from Disney’s own Hunchback adaptation), Notre-Dame de Paris first bowed in 1998 and “has been translated into nine languages and performed in over 23 countries,” according to Charlotte Lee’s story in Taiwan News. The show will play 28 performances in Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Taichung, marking “the first time the musical will be staged in Taiwan’s national performing arts venues.” The show will play in French with Chinese supertitles.
Billing itself as the world’s first mega-musical about the Hindu deity Shri Krishna, the splashy Indian musical Rajadhiraaj: Love Life Leela played to packed houses at the Dubai Opera, according to a story in Gulf Today. Boasting 20 original songs, more than 60 dancers and 1,800 costumes, the show’s brief engagement in Dubai (March 13-16) came after successful runs at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre’s (NMACC) Grand Theatre in Mumbai and at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Auditorium in Delhi. Rajadhiraaj: Love Life Leela is conceived and staged by Dhanraj Nathwani and backed by a team that includes creative producers Parthiv Gohil and Viral Rachh and executive producer Bhoomi Nathwani.
With most male actors at war, a small Ukrainian theater reinvents itself with an all-female cast, reads the headline of reporter Illia Novikov’s story in The Associated Press. Alongside a striking series of photos by Efrem Lukatsky, Novikov writes, “The efforts of the theater in Chernihiv, the capital of a region that borders Russia and Belarus, reflect a broader reality in Ukraine where women are stepping into roles once dominated by men, sustaining not just their industries but the spirit of national resistance.” At the Chernihiv Regional Youth Theater, “[t]he theater’s predominantly female actors and staff—including cloakroom attendants, cashiers, cleaners, and cafeteria workers—spend much of their time supporting Ukrainian soldiers, weaving camouflage nets in the theater before opening the doors to audiences at night. The team also regularly raises funds to supply their deployed colleagues with necessary kit for the front lines.”
AND ICYMI
In last week’s edition: Everything you need to know about the Japanese stage musical adaptation of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, now touring to 21 cities across the U.S.
THERE'S A JAPANESE SAILOR MOON MUSICAL COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU
I went to South by Southwest to get the scoop on the ambitious global push behind Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live