Stage
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‘We stick two fingers up at Henry VIII’: can the riotous all-Japanese Six out-Tudor-queen the original?
The Japanese version of the pop-rock phenomenon about the six ill-fated wives caused a sensation in Tokyo, Osa…
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‘Beautiful form isn’t enough’: National Ballet of Japan – picture essay
Photographer David Levene gained access to the ballet company as they prepared for Ballet Coffret, ahead of a …
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Japanese kabuki actor gets suspended sentence for assisting parents’ suicide
Ennosuke Ichikawa was part of apparent family pact to take their own lives after he learned he was to be accus…
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Japanese kabuki actor found collapsed at home alongside parents
Ennosuke Ichikawa taken to hospital but mother and father died after taking overdoseThe world of Japanese kabu…
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Plastic pirouettes: Japan’s recycled bottle ballet – in pictures
Plastic, a production by Japanese company K-Ballet, draws attention to a global pollution crisis with its unus…
- Japan, Star Trek, Science fiction TV, US news, Musicals, Asia Pacific, Television & radio, LGBTQ+ rights, Television, Stage, Theatre, Culture, Race
‘There was one prima donna on Star Trek’: George Takei on William Shatner, love and life as an ‘enemy alien’
TV made him a star, but activism turned him into a hero. Now 85 and still going strong, the actor remembers hi…
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Mama, just killed a samurai! How Japan used Queen to liven up Romeo and Juliet
How do you give the star-cross’d lovers a lift? Drop them in 12th-century Japan and add a classic Queen album.…
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Queen’s A Night at the Opera inspires Japanese take on Romeo and Juliet
A Night at the Kabuki, which shifts the star-crossed lovers to 12th-century Japan, will visit London on an int…
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Tokyo Rose review – fiery musical revolves around radio DJ’s fight for justice
Southwark Playhouse, LondonIva Toguri’s trial for treason, accused of broadcasting Japanese propaganda to Amer…
- Japan, Tokyo Olympic Games 2020, Olympic Games, World news, Asia Pacific, Dance, Stage, Culture, Sport
Tokyo Olympic opening ceremony: toil and mourning bloom into sparkling extravaganza
Empty seats contained potent symbolism as the sensitive and stylish ceremony focused on hard graft, failing be…
- Music, Japan, Identity politics, Sexuality, Dance music, Society, US news, World news, Asia Pacific, Dance, Stage, South Korea, Culture, Disco
Waacking for ever! Why has the martial arts disco dance craze resurfaced in Asia?
Born in the gay clubs of LA, the craze was popularised by John Travolta, Donna Summer and the TV show Soul Tra…
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An Actor’s Revenge: Kon Ichikawa’s phenomenal kabuki thriller
In this stylish Japanese classic, a performer uses theatrical techniques to engineer the deaths of his enemies…
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After Audition: Takashi Miike’s rehearsal-room shocker Over Your Dead Body
Continuing our series on the best films about theatre, a 200-year-old Japanese ghost story takes centre stage …
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A revolution is sweeping through Japan’s Takarazuka Music School
This month the school scrapped several longstanding and unwritten rules that governed the behaviour of student…
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Diary of a socially distanced director: how I staged a play in Tokyo – from London
When Lindsay Posner was asked to direct a production of Twelve Angry Men from his home in the UK, with a Japan…
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Enjoying the real and unreal on stage | Letter
Roger Macy on the The Seven Streams of the River OtaI was every bit as carried away by The Seven Streams of th…
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Sabers for samurai as Japanese theatre stages kabuki version of Star Wars
Plays combine plots from blockbuster franchise and feature Ichikawa Ebizo XI, foremost star of the traditional…