The Menier Chocolate Factory today announces full casting for their co-production with the Umeda Arts Theater of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Pacific Overtures.
Matthew White directs Jon Chew (Reciter), Kanako Nakano (Tamate), Saori Oda (Shogun/Madam), Takuro Ohno (Kayama), and Joaquin Pedro Valdes (Manjiro), with Luoran Ding, Masashi Fujimoto, Rachel Hayne Picar, Eu Jin Hwang, Abel Law, Ethan Le Phong, JoJo Meredith, Patrick Munday, Sario Solomon, Joy Tan, Lee V G, and Iverson Yabut. The production opens at Menier Chocolate Factory on 4 December, with previews from 25 November, and runs until 24 February.
Direction: Matthew White; Set Design: Paul Farnsworth; Costume Design: Ayako Maeda; Sound Design: Gregory Clarke; Choreography: Ashley Nottingham; Musical Supervision: Catherine Jayes; Musical Direction: Paul Bogaev; Orchestrations: Jonathan Tunick; Hair and Make-up Design: Wakana Yoshihara; Cultural Consultant: You-Ri Yamanaka
Nippon. The Floating Kingdom. One of Stephen Sondheim’s most ambitious creations comes to the Chocolate Factory in a co-production with Umeda Arts Theater in Japan, where it has already been a huge success in Tokyo and Osaka. The story of the arrival of the West in 1853 in isolated Japan is seen from a western perspective but played in an eastern style. The score is filled with some of Sondheim’s most ravishing music, including “Someone in a Tree”, “Pretty Lady” and “A Bowler Hat”.
Pacific Overtures completes the Menier’s trilogy of Weidman/Sondheim musicals following their productions of Assassins and Road Show.
