ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS FOR OCT. 1, 2024
Brand synergy meets musicals in Madrid, a envelope-pushing Indian show plays London, La Haine gets a Paris stage adaptation, and more
Welcome to the latest edition of ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS, my regular roundup of theater headlines from around the world. And welcome to October, which officially marks the start of Year 2 of Jaques. After a hiatus, SPOTLIGHT STORIES return next week, ending the temporary pause on paid subscriptions.
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Musicals are so popular in Madrid that even big brands are trying to cash in on the trend: In a story that calls to mind the recent Tim Hortons musical in Toronto, the Spanish-language publication Motor16 covers a new musical inspired by “Spain’s most famous utility vehicle,” Seat Ibiza. According to writer Pablo Rocca (via Google Translate), the show Salta Conmigo (Jump With Me) is “a tribute to the different generations that have lived to the rhythm of Spanish pop music.” The guiding concept: The Seat Ibiza is not just a car but “a witness to four decades of changes, progress and music.” The production premieres in Madrid in November but “the possibility of the show traveling to other cities, including Barcelona, is not ruled out.”
London’s Soho Theatre and Mumbai’s National Centre for Performing Arts are teaming up for a two-week London run of The Gentlemen’s Club, a show that explores queerness and gender identity in Mumbai’s underground club scene. As Stephi Wild in BroadwayWorld India writes, “The hit production was originally produced by LGBTQIA+ organization Gaysi Family in 2015 while Section 377, a colonial-era law criminalizing queer identities, was still in effect. As India’s first show introducing audiences to the world of Drag Kings, it toured across India at various theater festivals and alternative venues and bars.” Now playing in London for a brief run, the production marks the first co-presentation by Soho Theater and Mumbai’s NCPA.
Thirty years after it wowed the Cannes Film Festival, the gritty French film La Haine (Hate) is becoming a stage musical that will premiere in Paris later this month. Opening at La Seine Musicale, the show “combines dance, cinema, rap, theater and live performance,” according to an Associated Press story credited to writers Samuel Petrequin, Marine Lesprit and Alex Turnbill. The film’s original director, Mathieu Kassovitz, and theater director Serge Denoncourt spearhead the adaptation about a trio of youths in a Parisian housing project confronting police brutality.
Korea Times has a feature on the rising cross-cultural exchange between South Korea and China precipitated by musical theater. “This growing relationship began with Chinese musical enthusiasts traveling to Korea,” writes Vanessa Cai, as Chinese musical theater fans are drawn to Seoul by the city’s wide array of shows and afterwards discuss and review the productions they’ve seen on Chinese social media. In July, “the Chinese musical The Butterfly on the Bund 1939 became the first Chinese production to be licensed and staged in Korea.” Meanwhile: “In Shanghai, which also has a burgeoning musical theater scene, the Chinese versions of Korean musicals Mia Famiglia and Mio Fratello have enjoyed popularity since opening in August 2020 and April 2021, respectively,” and “Korean original musicals such as Gloomy Day and Fan Letter are finding enthusiastic audiences in Chinese cities, signaling an expanding appeal.” Cai concludes: “These cultural exchanges are fostering a deeper appreciation and understanding between the audiences of both nations, proving that musical theater is a medium for bridging cultural divides beyond language barriers.”
The successful Czech musical Dracula has been adapted into the Korean musical A Bloody Love, bowing in Seoul in December. As noted by Lee Sol-hee in The Musical (via Google Translate), Dracula first played the Czech Republic in 1995 and first ran in Seoul in 1998, but this new version, produced by PR Company, reinterprets the show “with a new sensibility.” Sporting a reimagined structure, the new adaptation “will be a spectacle that feels like watching a movie,” Lee writes.
And in further Korean industry news, Library Company, the Korean live entertainment firm that’s invested in Broadway productions & Juliet and Some Like It Hot, has picked up the stage rights to the mega-popular Japanese manga series Drops of God and “is embarking on a full-scale attack on the global market,” writes Sol-hee Lee in The Musical (via Google Translate). A story about rival wine tasters that doubles as a surprisingly in-depth guide to the world of wine, Drops of God has been so popular as a manga (15 million+ copies sold worldwide) that it’s driven international wine sales trends; the manga has also been adapted into a live-action TV series on Apple TV+. According to Lee, Library Company “plans to co-produce the musical Drops of God with Japan’s Kodansha and advance into the global market after its world premiere in Korea.”
The first book in Spanish about legendary composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim has hit shelves. In it, academic and writer Albert Mira contends that “one of the keys to Sondheim’s success … is the flexibility of his works, which allow for various adaptations without losing their essence,” according to a story in classical musical outlet Scherzo (via Google Translate). “‘A comparison has often been made between Sondheim and Shakespeare, and I think that, at least in this sense, the comparison is possible,’ says the author. Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods are examples of works that can be approached from social, psychological or even caricature perspectives, which, in Mira’s opinion, is a reflection of the depth of his work.” In recent years Spain has seen a Spanish-language production of Company directed by and starring Antonio Banderas; later this month Gypsy (with lyrics by Sondheim) makes its Spanish-language premiere at Banderas’ Teatro del Soho CaixaBank in Málaga.
Disney’s Frozen exited Hamburg Sept. 29 and the occasion prompted a story in Bild with a rundown of factoids: the show’s nearly three-year engagement attracted some 1.5 million visitors, and during that time the production went through 100 kg of makeup and 265,500 costume changes. Snowman Olaf received 5,000 hugs onstage. Next stop for Germany’s Frozen: a run in Stuttgart that starts in November; the West End staging of Frozen closed last month after about three years.
Back in February I wrote about how Starlight Express has ended up running for 35 years (and counting!) in Bochum, Germany, and a big part of that backstory was an innovative municipal push to score the title as a tourist attraction for the city. But not all such efforts in Germany had the same enduring success: A feature on Kreiszeitung.de tells the story of a late-1990s initiative in the German town of Bremen to give itself an economic boost via a purpose-built venue for the internationally popular musical Jekyll & Hyde. Thomas Kuzaj writes (via Google Translate) that about 18 months after the production’s initial success, “audience numbers dropped. Had Bremen miscalculated—not least because of long-term payment obligations for the theater? They wanted to turn things around with the old musical Hair, but that didn’t work.” Further calamities (including bankruptcy) and shifts in programming ensued; now the venue is an all-purpose performing arts center celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Get the full story behind Bochum’s extraordinary run of Starlight Express in this newsletter from February:
Speaking of Jekyll & Hyde: The Frank Wildhorn musical returns to Seoul in December in a production from OD Company and Chunsoo Shin, the producer of The Great Gatsby on Broadway. Jekyll & Hyde’s multiple repeat engagements in Seoul mark it as perhaps the most enduringly popular Western musical in South Korea; this new staging is timed to the 20th anniversary of the show’s Korean premiere.
In the last decade alone, Jekyll & Hyde played Seoul in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2021, as noted in my story from last year about that city’s booming theater industry:
In São Paolo, a non-replica production of Hairspray has extended its run due to high demand. The production is co-directed by Thiago Abravanel, who also plays Edna.
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