Spirited Away: Live On Stage (2022)

A young teenage girl (Kanna Hashimoto) is moving to a new town along with her parents (Kenya Osumi, Miyu Sakihi). Along the way, they enter a tunnel that takes them into a different world, one of Japanese spirits and it is there that her parents are turned into pigs. Directed by the British theatre and opera director John Caird. A stage version of Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar winning 2001 animated film done for the Japanese stage. Caird makes no attempt at hiding the theatricality of the piece. We clearly see the puppet masters moving the marionettes and speaking for them and several actors wear face masks. While not a musical, song and dance (or movement) are an important element in the production. As for the human actors, they're fine with some standouts, notably Mari Natsuki playing the twin sisters. Was this production really necessary? No but I appreciate the inventiveness of the production with its roots in Bunraku (Japanese puppet theatre). After its Japanese production, the play opened in London a year later and a production is scheduled to open in Los Angeles in 2027 in the original Japanese (with surtitles). With Kotaro Daigo, Koharu Sugawara and Tomorowo Taguchi.