‘My Neighbor Totoro’: Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company joins forces with composer Joe Hisaishi to create a family theater show based on Hayao Miyazaki’s film, but don’t call it a musical!

Famous Japanese composer Joe Hisashi has teamed up with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK to create a theatrical version of the 1988 animated classic from Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki. my neighbor Totoro, A favorite film that tells the adventures of two young sisters who move from the city of Tokyo.

Set in 1950s Japan, the film features Satsuki and May, who move with their father to a new home near the forest. Those who remain alone will discover spirits and magical creatures; Particularly interesting are the two furry creatures, the giant fluffy creature known as Totoro, and the mammoth cat, which carries passengers and then takes off into the sky.

Hisai will co-produce the show with RSC and Studio Ghibli, where Miyazaki is shooting his films in collaboration with the British theater company Improbable and Nippon TV.

მიაძაკის stimulating At the 2003 Academy Awards, he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film.. The Museum of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences opened last year with an exhibition of works by Miyazaki. Additionally, his entire feature film catalog has become very popular on Netflix..

Soundtrack of the film Hisaish my neighbor Totoro It will be used in theatrical production, as well as in orchestral works and songs that were written for the film but not included in it.

The film is adapted for the theater by British playwright Tom Morton-Smith (Oppenheimer). Felly McDermott, Improbable’s joint art director will direct the show with longtime employee Tom Pai, who has joined the production designer.

McDermott told Deadline he is thrilled to have Kim Nakano (costume), Jessica Hun Han Yoon (lights) and Yuri Ri Yamanaka (movement) join the creative team. “I’m not from this (Japanese) culture and there are some things at work that I don’t understand. “It is imperative that these sounds are in the room,” he said.

Additionally, a large ensemble will be of Japanese, Eastern and South Eastern heritage. Children are unlikely to play the show’s two little siblings. “We have to use artists who can do a lot of things … dolls, physical objects, so we can make decisions,” McDermott said.

It is very clear that the production my neighbor Totoro The opening of the 15-week season at London’s Barbican Center from 8 October 2022 to 21 January 2023 will not be a musical in the strict sense of the word.

There will be a band on stage playing live music. “There will be a lot of music,” McDermott said. “And you can hear a beautiful voice in a certain scene like in a movie,” he explained.

He stated that “if we turn it into a musical, it says something different than what the source material says.”

McDermott’s products will use doll vocabulary (created by the famous Basil Twist doll) and imagery. “You see the images and hear the sound he sings, instead of the character’s panting song, which wouldn’t be right,” he added.

The show will have environmental sensitivities about it, McDermott said. Not just as part of the story, but also how the puppets are created using eco-friendly materials. “There will be little details of nature in this crazy story about spirits in the woods,” laughed McDermott.

McDermott said his friend and regular collaborator, composer Philip Glass, introduced him to Hisais in London five years ago. Hisaish wanted to meet with the theater director to discuss the idea of ​​bringing my neighbor Totoro Before the stage. It was around this time that Pippa Hill, director of literature for the RSC, invited writer Morton-Smith to bid on the family show.

He’s out my neighbor Totoro. “Unfortunately, Studio Jibli contacted RSC and said they wanted to work with us on stage to adapt their work. They said how much they liked it (The Tony Winning Musical) Matilde. “It all came together at once,” Morton Smith told Deadline.

Morton-Smith traveled to Japan to meet Miyazaki. The director asked her if she was a feminist. “I said ‘yes’ and it was very important to him and that the girls were central. All of his films are fantastic and magical and there are so many that correspond to childhood. “It’s about exploring the natural world and running, and it really involves a great life,” Morton-Smith said.

The writer said that almost everything you see in the film “will find its way onto the stage, but if you look at the script alone, it’s too scarce in terms of dialogue, so I could and have been allowed to expand the snippets.” that already exist and show some scenes that are not in the film.

my neighbor Totoro This will be one of the largest initiatives in the history of CSR. Erika Wyman, RSC Acting Art Director, took an interest in her progress and participated in several workshops on doll pre-production, music and casting. Full trials begin in July.