Evan Hansen goes global
And Mexico's Sweeney is... hot?
Good morning (or afternoon) world!
Welcome to the latest edition of the Broadway DNA bi-weekly newsletter! In pulling the latest global theatre headlines for you, I try to balance what I think a predominantly Western commercial theatre readership might value: what titles are successful, where, by who, and why? Some of the how, the nuts and bolts of licensing and/or producing, I dip into in asides mixed in with the news. Natalie-isms, if you will. Whether you're a producer, writer or composer, director, or simply a musical theatre enthusiast, this bulletin is your ticket to staying informed and getting globally inspired!
HOT OFF THE PRESS: “DEAR EVAN HANSEN” GOES GLOBAL
As I previously covered here, Korean producers S&Co announced a “Dear Evan Hansen” Korean licensed production to premiere in March 2024. Based on the original key art, and the producers’ history, my thought was this will be the first intl replica production using the direction and design from Broadway. However…
Casting for the German language premiere by Austria’s Der Musical Frühling has also just been announced for a production in the Austrian city of Gmunden in March 2024, followed by a stop in Germany at the Fürth City Theater in Fall 2024. (Check out the funky tree key art that makes me think 1. non-replica? and 2. “what am I an acorn?”)
AAAAAAND THEN, Australia’s Sydney Theatre Company and Michael Cassel Group just announced a “brand new production” (Heavily implying non-replica! Will we get a new striped shirt??) premiering October 2024.
NOTE: In a Guardian piece picked up by numerous Broadway news sites, they claim this will be the “first original production since the musical debuted on Broadway,” after they “secured the rights to put on a fresh interpretation for Australia.” Based on the above though, that may not be the case, or at least not the full picture for the IP, and is a prime example of Western journalistic bias in the arts and a lack of comprehensive global coverage and licensing transparency. Happy for the investors getting their nut back though.
ASIA-PACIFIC
“Rent” returning to Korea with iSeensee Company in November— First premiering in Korea in 2000, the musical has been revived frequently to great success, exceeding any prior concerns of societal conservatism in meeting the subject matter. According to Korean musical blogger musicalinlife121, every year the lyrics are refined in a way that preserves the meaning of the original version, but the lyrics of the 2002 version are considered quintessential.
KOPIS (Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System) released the Top 5 ticket sales by genre in the Korean market’s first half of 2023. Topping the Play category is Lee Hall’s “Shakespeare in Love” (the first Korean play to exceed a ticket price of 100,000 won), with the long-anticipated world premiere of global musical royalty Sylvester Levay and Michael Kunze’s “Beethoven Secret” topping the Musical category. The local language replica licenses of “Phantom of the Opera” and “Moulin Rouge” follow, with the return favorite of Frank Wildhorn’s “Death Note” in fourth.
Delayed by COVID, Broadway’s“Anastasia” finally makes Japanese replica production premiere— Playing 14 performances before being cancelled by COVID in 2020, Umeda Arts Theater’s “Anastasia” finally premiered on September 12, running through October and expected to play Tokyo then Osaka. Note this is different from the show’s other 2020 Japanese premiere with the all-female performance troupe Takarazuka.
Convenient for Ahrens and Flaherty, their other musical “Ragtime” now premiering with Toho through October
SPANISH-SPEAKING WORLD
“Sweeney Todd” local Mexican license beginning in October produced by Vatru Entertainment and Ícaro Teatro— I took a casual poll on Instagram, but do you think Sweeney Todd being cast as hot adds or detracts from the drama? Lmk.
New trailer for Mexico’s “El Mago (The Wiz)”, running through October at the Teatro Hidalgo
FYI: Music Theatre International and Latiné Musical Theatre Lab are partnering to create bilingual versions of Broadway Junior ® musicals— “Shrek The Musical JR.” will be the first show developed together as part of the new partnership. I literally could not be more hype for this, check out some of the other great work LMT is doing here.
EUROPE
“Legally Blonde” finally arrives at the Teatro La Latina in Madrid later this month, produced by Sunset Entertainment
Lloyd Webber’s “School of Rock” rocks Austrian premiere at the Linz State Theater— hailed as one of the most modern and luxurious opera houses in Europe, check out all that leg room by NYT’s @ajgoldmann
Show You Should Know:
“King’s Table” (sometimes translated “King’s Chess”) is an immersive, environmental, Nordic-inspired, sci-fi Chinese musical set in an imagined Europe in the nineteenth century— that also happens to be one of the first original Chinese musicals to be licensed abroad and translated into Korean! Quick facts:
Premiered in 2022 by Shanghai Yahua Lake Theater Management and Development Co., Ltd. and Wang Zuowen, founder of Whale Culture at Asia Tower, Yahua’s new performing arts complex that now has 19 performance spaces running every night, with over 6,656 performances, a cumulative audience of 437,900, and a box office of 116 million yuan. Spaces average 100-200 capacity for intimate, environmental theatre. A tour of the Chinese set can be seen here.
Licensed in May 2023 by Korea’s Never Ending Play.
It is actually a musical prequel (!!) to composer Liang Xin’s “Lighthouse.”
Musical as historical, fantasy/magic-imbued escapism (as opposed to American realism or modernism) is perhaps my favorite global reality, dominated by the 20th century’s French, German, and Czech mega-musicals influencing modern Asian theatre market tastes. Just ask titles like “Robin Hood,” “Notre Dame de Paris,” “Dracula,” “Xcalibur,” “Three Musketeers,” “Monte Cristo”…
Have a show or idea you want to expand abroad? Consider working with Natalie at Broadway DNA, just reply to this email and let’s chat!