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Olivier Awards 2023 Nominates My Neighbor Totoro Stage Play for 9 Awards
posted on by Adriana Hazra
- Noël Coward Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play
- Gillian Lynne Award for Best Theatre Choreographer - Basil Twist (puppetry direction)
- Best Costume Design - Kimie Nakano
- d&b audiotechnik Award for Best Sound Design - Tony Gayle
- Best Original Score or New Orchestrations - Joe Hisaishi (music) and Will Stuart (orchestrations, arrangements)
- Blue-I Theatre Technology Award for Best Set Design - Tom Pye
- White Light Award for Best Lighting Design - Jessica Hung Han Yun
- Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director - Phelim McDermott
- Best Actress - Mei Mac
My Neighbor Totoro had a 15-week run from its premiere on October 8, 2022 to January 21, 2023. It was presented by the RSC and Hayao Miyazaki's longtime composer Joe Hisaishi, who created the music for the original film and serves as the play's executive producer. Tom Morton-Smith (Oppenheimer) adapted the story, and Phelim McDermott (Akhnaten) directed the production. The play was made in collaboration with the English theatre company Improbable and Japan's Nippon TV.
The play won five awards at the theatrical WhatsOnStage Awards in February.
Interviewed by the Deadline website, the director Phelim McDermott specified that two girls in the story are unlikely to be played by children. "We have to use performers who can do many things …puppetry, physical stuff, so there are choices to be made." He also specified that the play would not be a musical in the strict sense, although there will be a band onstage playing live music.
McDermott also said that he was introduced to Joe Hisaishi in London six years ago by the composer Phillip Glass; Hisaishi wanted to discuss adapting My Neighbor Totoro for the stage. Writer Tom Morton-Smith met Hayao Miyazaki in Japan about the play, and Miyazaki asked Morton-Smith if he was a feminist. Morton-Smith said, "I said ‘yes’ and that was very important to him and that the girls are central."
Morton-Smith said that he had permission "to expand on the beats (in the film) that are already there and show some scenes that aren't in the film.”
The RSC describes the production on its website:
"This enchanting coming-of-age story explores the magical fantasy world of childhood and the transformative power of imagination, as it follows one extraordinary summer in the lives of sisters Satsuki and Mei."My Neighbor Totoro will play a strictly limited 15-week season from 8 October 2022 - 21 January 2023 and promises to delight all generations.
The original anime film My Neighbor Totoro is the story of two young sisters, Mei and Satsuki, who move to the countryside and encounter Totoro, wonderful creatures which only children can see.
Source: Official London Theatre (Kitty Underwood)
