1976 Broadway 1984 Off-Broadway 1987 English National Opera 2003 West End 2004 Broadway revival 2014 Off-West End 2017 Off-Broadway revival 2023 Off-West End revival
Pacific Overtures is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by John Weidman, with "additional material by" Hugh Wheeler.
Set in nineteenth-century Japan, it tells the story of the country's westernization starting in 1853, when American ships forcibly opened it to the rest of the world. The story is told from the point of view of the Japanese, and focuses in particular on the lives of two friends who are caught in the change.
Sondheim wrote the score in a quasi-Japanese style of parallel 4ths and no leading-tone. He did not use the pentatonic scale; the 4th degree of the major scale is represented from the opening number through the finale, as Sondheim found just five pitches too limiting. The music contrasts Japanese contemplation ("There Is No Other Way") with Western ingenuousness ("Please Hello") while over the course of the 127 years, Western harmonies, tonality and even lyrics are infused into the score. The score is generally considered to be one of Sondheim's most ambitious and sophisticated efforts.[1]
The original Broadway production of Pacific Overtures in 1976 was staged in Kabuki style, with men playing women's parts and set changes made in full view of the audience by black-clad stagehands. It opened to mixed reviews and closed after six months, despite being nominated for ten Tony Awards.
Given its specific casting and production demands, Pacific Overtures remains one of Stephen Sondheim's least-performed musicals. The show is occasionally staged by opera companies. The cast requires an abundance of male Asian actors who must play male and female parts. As written, women join the ensemble for only half of the last song; all other principal female roles are played by men, as was traditional in Kabuki theatre. In the original production the five female cast members appeared throughout the show in small roles and as stagehands, and more recent productions, including the 2004 Broadway revival, did away with the device of men playing the majority of the women's roles.
The most recent revival in 2017 at Classic Stage Company, helmed by John Doyle and starring George Takei as The Reciter, featured a cast of only 10 people, 8 men and 2 women. This also featured a revised book by John Weidman that had a running time of 90 minutes (as compared to the previous 2 hour 30 minute original run time).
^Suskin, Steven. "Show Tunes" (2000). Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0-19-512599-1, p. 283
PacificOvertures is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by John Weidman, with "additional material by" Hugh Wheeler. Set...
2002). "Cultural Fine-Tuning of 'PacificOvertures'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 28, 2021. "PacificOvertures". Internet Broadway Database. The...
was also an original cast member of the Stephen Sondheim musical PacificOvertures. Watanabe was born and raised in Ogden, Utah in a Japanese-American...
and Kristin Chenoweth, and the 2004 revival of Stephen Sondheim's PacificOvertures. Wong narrated a public television documentary, "Maxine Hong Kingston:...
with Sondheim in Roundabout Theatre's revival of PacificOvertures in 2005. After PacificOvertures, Leung originated the role of Boq in the Chicago company...
50 Most Beautiful People of 1998. He has appeared on Broadway in PacificOvertures, The King and I and Breakfast at Tiffany's, starring Emilia Clarke...
all of which are politically themed to some degree. The first was PacificOvertures, about the Westernization of Japan in the 19th century; it premiered...
starring in musicals like Mame, Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen, and PacificOvertures. He has appeared in dozens of movies and television shows in character...
Terry (4 May 2017). "'PacificOvertures' Review: Shortening Sondheim". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 28 May 2017. "PacificOvertures". Classic Stage Company...
The Desert Song At the Drop of a Hat PacificOvertures (original Broadway cast) The Comedy of Errors (ITV) The Pirates of Penzance (The Public Theater)...
Broadway stage credits include Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russell, and PacificOvertures, a musical written by Stephen Sondheim and directed by Harold Prince...
in two roles in the original 1976 production of Stephen Sondheim's PacificOvertures. He is best known to American comic book readers as a writer and editor...
Off-Broadway shows. Ing made his Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim's PacificOvertures in 1976. Ing returned to Broadway in 2004 for a revival of the same...
Council of Governors of East West Players, one of the pioneering Asian Pacific American theaters in the United States, until 2018. That same year, he...
marriage (Company), and the forcible opening of 19th-century Japan (PacificOvertures). Over the span of his career, he garnered 21 Tony Awards, including...
series Madam Secretary (2014–2019). Jue's Broadway credits include PacificOvertures (1984; 2004), M. Butterfly (1989) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002)...
diplomacy Dutch missions to Edo Sakoku United States expedition to Korea PacificOvertures, a musical about Japan's westernization in the 19th century by Stephen...
benefit production performing "Four Black Dragons" and "Next" from PacificOvertures by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman. The 2001 comedy feature film...
1868 History of Japan Meiji Restoration Yokohama Archives of History PacificOvertures W. G. Beasley, The Meiji Restoration, p. 88. W. G. Beasley, The Meiji...
fill-in for Mako on his voice roles by listening to the cast album of PacificOvertures, a musical that Mako starred in, which was a personal favorite album...
" "What I Did For Love") Goodtime Charley - 1975 The Frogs - 1975 PacificOvertures - 1976 Ballroom - 1978 Sweeney Todd - 1979 Merrily We Roll Along -...
audition, Watanabe had been in New York City performing for the musical PacificOvertures at The Public Theater. His agent had informed him of the role as a...
Year Title Role Venue 1986 PacificOvertures Unknown Manchester Central Library The Beauty Game Denise 1990 Blood Brothers Linda Albery Theatre, London...
Man of La Mancha Me and My Girl Nine Oklahoma! PacificOvertures Promises, Promises Ragtime South Pacific Sweet Charity You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown...
Song of the Year "Send In the Clowns" Won 1977 Best Cast Show Album PacificOvertures Nominated 1980 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Won...
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