Stephen Sondheim`s Pacific Overtures revival is heading to the Menier Chocolate Factory

The performances scheduled from 25th November 2023 to 24th February 2024

Nippon. The Floating Kingdom.

One of Stephen Sondheim’s most ambitious, rarely-seen creations comes to the Chocolate Factory in a co-production with Umeda Arts Theater in Japan, where it has already been a huge success in Tokyo and Osaka.

The story of the arrival of the West in 1853 in isolated Japan is seen from a Western perspective but played in an Eastern style. The score is filled with some of Sondheim’s most ravishing music, including ‘Someone in a Tree’, ‘Pretty Lady’ and ‘A Bowler Hat’.

Pacific Overtures completes the Menier’s trilogy of Sondheim/Weidman musicals following their critically acclaimed productions of Assassins and Road Show.

The cast includes Jon Chew as the Reciter, Kanako Nakano as Tamate, Saori Oda as Shogun/Madam, Takuro Ohno as Kayama, and Joaquin Pedro Valdes as Manjiro. Also appearing Luoran Ding, Masashi Fujimoto, Rachel Jayne Picar, Eu Jin Hwang, Abel Law, Ethan Le Phong, JoJo Meredith, Patrick Munday, Sario Solomon, Joy Tan, Lee V G and Iverson Yabut.

Director of the show Matthew White, set design by Paul Farnsworth, costume design by Ayako Maeda, lighting designer Paul Pyant, sound design by Gregory Clarke, choreography by Ashley Nottingham, musical supervisor Catherine Jayes, musical direction by Paul Bogaev, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, hair and make-up design by Wakana Yoshihara, traditional Japanese movement and cultural consultant You-Ri Yamanaka.