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GKIDS Releases Spirited Away Stage Play on BD on November 14, Digital on October 24

posted on by Anita Tai
Stage show first ran in Japan from February 2022 to March 2022

GKIDS revealed on Monday that it will release the filmed performances of Spirited Away: Live on Stage, the stage play adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away anime film, digitally on October 24 and on Blu-ray Disc on November 14. Shout! Studios is distributing the home video release. GKIDS streamed an English-subtitled trailer:

The stage play will be available as a 2-disc set, which will feature the show's two different casts.

The company describes the show:

Hayao Miyazaki's Academy Award®-winning* animated feature film comes to life in this first-ever stage adaptation full of dazzling sets, captivating musical numbers, and wondrous puppets of beloved characters. Adapted and directed by Tony Award® winner John Caird (Les Misérables), SPIRITED AWAY: Live on Stage features two unique casts and performances filmed during the show's acclaimed 2022 run at Tokyo's historic Imperial Theatre, featuring Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi as Chihiro.

spiritedaway
The stage play ran in Japan with two different sets of cast members. The play's first run debuted at the Imperial Theatre from February to March 2022, then went on tour to Osaka in April, Fukuoka in May, Sapporo in June, and Nagoya in June and July for a total of 102 performances. Some Fukuoka performances of the stage play were canceled to Hashimoto being diagnosed with COVID-19, and similarly canceled some Nagoya performances due to Park, Kamishiraishi, and some staff and cast members also being infected with COVID-19. The show ran again in Nagoya in August, and is scheduled to return to Tokyo in March 2024.

The show's first run shipped in Japan on Blu-ray Disc on July 29.

Tony and Olivier Award-winning director and the Royal Shakespeare Company's Honorary Associate Director John Caird (Les Misérables, Nicholas Nickleby, Daddy Long Legs) wrote and directed the production.

GKIDS theatrically screened a recorded performance of both versions of the stage play. The version with Hashimoto screened in North America on April 23 and 25, and the version with Kamishiraishi screened on April 27 and May 2.

Spirited Away was previously the highest-grossing Japanese film worldwide until Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train surpassed the record. Spirited Away remains the only non-English-language title to win the Academy Awards' Best Animated Feature award, which it earned in 2003.

Source: Press release


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