This is the Stephen Sondheim musical I least expected to see revived, let alone as nimbly as in this thrilling co-production between the Menier and Osaka’s Umeda Arts Theater.
Written in 1976 with a book by John Weidman, it tells how the US forced hermetic, shogunate Japan to open up to commerce in 1853. Told from the Asian perspective, its score and staging fuse 20th-century western and classic Japanese performance genres, including the declamatory style of kabuki. Wait, stop, don’t go away - Matthew White’s production is a revelation.
