I think it's very likely that My NEIGHBOUR TOTORO will have a significant life beyond the just-finished run at the Barbican. It's a very smart adaptation of a wonderful film, it's beautifully staged and performed, the music is gorgeous, and the Barbican run was more or less completely sold out from beginning to end. It's among the very best things I saw last year (second only to the Donmar's flawless production of THE BAND'S VISIT). I would not be at all surprised to see it have the same sort of worldwide trajectory as, say, the National's WAR HORSE or CURIOUS INCIDENT (and for my money, I had a better time at TOTORO than at either of those shows, and I liked both those shows very much).
It's certainly a given that it will be staged in Japan, since there's a Japanese co-producer on board, and I would expect it to be a huge, huge hit there.
(There's already a Japanese stage adaptation of Studio Ghibli's SPIRITED AWAY.) |
