East West Players' PACIFIC OVERTURES

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 3:08pm

Is it possible no-one has yet posted here on the extraordinary production of PACIFIC OVERTURES now playing at the East West Players in Los Angeles for just a couple more weeks? This is hands down the best show we've ever seen at EWP.

The cast (including Jon Jon Briones and Gedde Watanabe) is brilliant, the voices are gorgeous, the music-making is impeccable, the staging is so specific and personal and right for this culture. Sets and lights are lovely, costumes are glorious and even funny, but the projection design is on another level-- just astonishing use of woodblock design that gives way to images from nature and ultimately 21st century anime and zoom boxes and photorealist animation-- a perfect complement to the story being told. The entire score is presented here at long last, including some new verses to "Welcome to Kanagawa" that actually made us laugh out loud, and a stunning Lion Dance that proves why it is an integral part of the play and should never be cut again.

A special mention has to be made for Gedde Watanabe's performance here, famous for appearing in the OBC back in 1976 as the boy in the tree (a performance I saw in its Boston tryout.) Gedde acquits himself with great style as the Shogun's Mother earlier in Act 1, but when he enters as a hesitant old man for "Someone in a Tree" (my avatar!), my heart was in my mouth. In his very presence onstage, you felt the meaning of the lyrics.  Gedde was so nuanced and warm and in such glorious voice that the harmonies swelled and the tears fell and remained falling till the end of the Act. Gedde and Jon Jon and all the others just lift you up and deliver a Pacific Overtures for the ages that goes straight to the heart.

Updated On: 11/19/24 at 03:08 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 4:17pm

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/thread/PACIFIC-OVERTURES-in-Los-Angeles

[alexidarling15]

Posted: 11/20/24 at 4:27pm

I am dying to see this, especially with Brooke’s, but am on the wrong coast. Any hope of a transfer?