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Spirited Away Stage Play Returns in Japan in August 2023, March 2024
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The staff also announced that the Blu-ray Disc of the play's first run will go on sale on July 29. The Blu-ray Disc will include performances from both Hashimoto and Kamishiraishi, and the limited first edition will include over four hours of video bonus extras.
The stage play ran in Japan with two different sets of cast members. The play's first run debuted at the Imperial Theatre from February to March 2022, then went on tour to Osaka in April, Fukuoka in May, Sapporo in June, and Nagoya in June and July for a total of 102 performances. Some Fukuoka performances of the stage play were canceled to Hashimoto being diagnosed with COVID-19, and similarly canceled some Nagoya performances due to Park, Kamishiraishi, and some staff and cast members also being infected with COVID-19.
Tony and Olivier Award-winning director and the Royal Shakespeare Company's Honorary Associate Director John Caird (Les Misérables, Nicholas Nickleby, Daddy Long Legs) wrote and directed the production.
GKIDS theatrically screened a recorded performance of both versions of the stage play. The version with Hashimoto screened in North America on April 23 and 25, and the version with Kamishiraishi screened just this Thursday, with another screening on May 2.
Spirited Away was previously the highest-grossing Japanese film worldwide until Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train surpassed the record. Spirited Away remains the only non-English-language title to win the Academy Awards' Best Animated Feature award, which it earned in 2003.
Sources: Spirited Away: Live on Stage official website, Comic Natalie
