Recent Pacific Overtures Revival Questions

Hi all -

Just a question for anyone who saw the recent Pacific Overtures revival... does anyone remember what the facts are they used in Next? I'm working on a production and we're trying to find up to date facts and while Google is helping, we figured it might be interesting to see what the recent revival used. Any help would be great. Thanks!

"It lacked the bite and spectacle of the original production but I don't wonder if maybe that's a better approach for a show about Japan that's written and directed by white people in 2018."

Can you elaborate a little more about what you mean by this, and why it is a 'better approach'?

Doyle is Doyle. I didn't like his work on Pacific Overtures, and I don't like his work in general. But you can't get mad at a fish for swimming, and you can't get mad at Doyle for doing a stripped down production.

Updated On: 2/16/18 at 12:50 AM

I disliked Doyle's production, too- aside from "Someone in a Tree" and "Please Hello" which were the only points that I felt like Doyle stepped back and actually let the material speak for itself rather than having his direction speak over it. His cuts to the score and text did it no favors, either. He basically took a show that was explicitly written in a certain style and entirely removed that style so he could put his own in.

And as is often the case with Doyle, it was a remarkably humorless and heartless production, saddled with unnecessary and opaque concepts.

Because of the nature of the company I work with ours is very scaled down. A very simple set design, a stage and then a hanamichi with the audience seated on either side and then a third bank of audience seating further downstage (thrust style). We're doing a lot with shadows (the boats appear as shadows as does the emperor) and puppets (Admiral Perry is a puppet). We put a lot of our budget towards costumes, and all the actors are in full kabuki style make up. We're doing it with a smaller cast (12) as the venue is only 100 seats, but we haven't cut much (other than stuff like the "marching band" that's supposed to appear in the March to the Treaty House). We have our first preview tonight.

John Adams said: "Dancingthrulife2 said: "One thing this production does very well is that it makes it clear that Pacific Overture [sic] is about the overture of the history of colonization by Imperial Japan."

Say what...?

I've read that sentence, then re-read it, and then read it a few more times. For the life of me, I cannot figure out what you are trying to say... ?????"

Just went back and saw your comment. Sorry for the confusion. What I meant was that Doyle's production interpreted Pacific Overtures as a story about how Empire of Japan gained or developed its colonial and colonialist mentality, which the shortened Next (approved by Sondheim) made very clear. Of course, as you aptly pointed out, there is an "s" in Pacific Overtures. It can be the overtures of many things. For the sake of Doyle's production, however, I think the simplicity at the core of the design does a pretty effective and powerful job to get his point across.

Updated On: 3/28/18 at 02:26 AM

devonian.t said: "As a director, though, he might well remember that his job is to illuminate the authors' point, not to replace it with his own. He could write a play about the "colonized" becoming "colonizers" if he wanted. The original text spends 2 hours exploring the 'overtures' of the West and their rapid effects on Japan.

Hence the comments earlier about Doyle hacking out the original style and content."

To be fair, Sondheim is still alive. If he doesn't agree this interpretation, this production wouldn't have been put on stage.

Dancingthrulife2 said: "Doyle's production is certainly one of my favorites and one of the most faithful to what Japan is and feels like as opposed to the often overblown Occidental fantasization."



I understand your point, but Sondheim's has said that his intention was to present the piece as if it were written by a Japanese person who had visited Broadway, seen our shows, then returned to Japan to write this show about Japan in what he perceived to be our American, Broadway style. And all of this written by an American, Sondheim.

This is why it is an odd twist of Japanese and American styles. It's an American man's interpretation of a Japanese story written by a Japanese man in what he thinks is an American style, This is reflected both in the style of the piece, the casting, the language and the politics. It should not be presented as something "more faithful to Japanese" or it's missing the basic, fundamental intention of the piece.

I visited China recently, travelling from Beijing to Shanghai.

It seemed to me that the south had lost something in trying to embrace American culture so entirely.

However, who am I to decide what is right or wrong for other people? Who am I to decide whether the traditional lifestyle or Westernized society is better?

This is how I feel about the facts in 'Next'. Let the audience decide whether Japan has gained more than it has lost.

The definitive production in my book was lavishly spectacular, had plenty of "bite" and was completely loyal to the text.

That was the National Theatre of Tokyo's PACIFIC OVERTURES that played Avery Fisher Hall to thunderous acclaim in 2002.

EthelMae said: "All I can say is the 1976 original production was glorious. The 2nd production done at the now defunct Promenade Theatre Off-Broadway was beautiful in its smaller production ..."...



so true as i saw both these productions in NYC and loved both...i feel that the original production in 1976 of PO was a quiet show in the year of A CHORUS LINE...enough said, and when the Promenade Theatre production came about years later, the show was given a production that allowed it to be appreciated more...