Spirited Away - London Coliseum

It's worth noting that it's cheaper midweek than weekends and gets cheaper towards the end of the run (I guess dynamic pricing hasn't kicked in here yet). You can get those prime seats in the stalls for £166 then and fairly decent seats for £120. There are even still a few £90 seats in the front row of the Dress Circle available giving you a great overview of the stage. Naturally these went quickly on Wednesday already, but they are still there.

And yes, that's still expensive, but for most people this is a one-off event like seeing a famous pop star live in concert (at similar prices) and you get a massive spectacle for it (I've seen the pro-shot from Tokyo, it's gorgeous) - I feel I'd get a lot more here for £150 or so than a premium priced Jamie Lloyd play at £95 where everyone loiters on plastic chairs in street clothes for the entire length of the play.

I was thinking this too! Gonna be a lot of restless / confused kids in that place...

I had also booked the original closing night, but glad there's enough demand to warrant an extension.

I'm of the camp that prefers subs over dubs when watching foreign media, but I am still feeling a bit jittery for those who are oblivious and booked on the back of the success of Totoro. Studio Ghibli has a sizeable following around the world, but I sat by enough families at Totoro who went into it completely blind.

Wondering if the likelihood of a rush tickets system for this show is pretty low? Missed the boat with the original ticket release and can't justify stumping up over £100 for a seat...

They'll probably have one of those lotteries that's near impossible to win.
Can't imagine we'll see rush tickets, as it's virtually sold out for 2 months.

really looking forward to the reviews for this.

And the second half held up!! If you’re a fan of the movie it’s a perfect night out, if you’re at all interested in stagecraft there’s so much to see. Just wish the legroom in the upper circle wasn’t so tight - I have just about regained feeling in my foot!

Merch also great - a lot of Japanese inspired items and an exclusive No-Face London Coliseum pin badge. I think I might treat myself to a printed gauze handkerchief next time…

Yes!! His cheer at the end was so well deserved!

There was an incident when the water god is meant to fly out over the audience except it detached from the wiring and fell over some audience members. Thankfully no one was hurt and staff were prompt to remove it

God that was boring. Sorry.

Did you like the film?

Saw this tonight and felt it was absolutely magical.

Some spoilers follow. . .

It's wall-to-wall orchestral music, which I didn't remember from the film (I saw it in the cinema way back when) but which I'm a sucker for, as you can never pile on enough primal emotion for my tastes. Everything that happens on the stage seems to be underscored.

The cast seem to vary each night, many being triple cast, so as a huge admirer of the film, I was beyond chuffed that we got Mari Natsuki as the principal villain, Yubaba, as she originated the part in the movie, and is simply wonderful. There's a big blue board as you go in that tells you who you're getting.

The puppets are really colourful, evocative and special. It's War Horse style puppeteering for all the dragons, and stink monsters and sooties, which all seem to be alive.

But the best effects, for me, involved a strong human element at their core, so Kamaji, played tonight by the ever-inquisitive, uber-compassionate, wide-eyed Tomorowo Taguchi, was really something, his long spider-like extra arms puppeteered to make him resemble an ever-active human spinning loom.

Possibly one of the most commanding performances is by one of the very few single-cast characters, Hikaru Yamano, as No-Face, whose face, amusingly, given the character's name, you never see, until the bows. But, god, his physicality, his balletic movements, his sheer strangeness, the way he drifts and his body twists and turns unnaturally, and how he stops dead still to stare, Mona-Lisa-like at the audience, is gripping in it's ethereality. You'd swear he really wasn't human. And when the puppeteering starts, to grow his body by exponentially adding more and more people into his character's being, it's a wonder that tops even the wonderful Totoro, in my opinion.

The other great fantastical character, with a human core, is the three green bobbing heads of Kashira, played by Yuya Igarashi (also single cast, thank goodness, so everyone can see him), hench creature of the principal villain, Yubaba. Igarashi gives the biggest performance in the show, an exaggerated comic performance, a performance that has to be so big it fills three heads, two of which he carries. Big performances can be risky because if they miss the mark they are embarrassing, but this one, for me, is downright hilarious, the funniest thing in the show, topping even the sooties.

We had Mone Kamishiraishi, as Chihiro, the lead character, and one thing I would note is that it's a far more subtle, thoughtful and engaging lead performance than that in Totoro, where the character plays much younger. Here, there is simply no way to be pushed out of the story by wacky comic wailing and the like, with a tender believable emotive core to the performance at all times.

As a reviewer noted above, the story told is absolutely faithful to the film (I imagine that's what Miyazaki wanted), so that does mean that to be surprised, you really need to have almost forgotten the film, or never seen it at all lol.

Anyhow, this is a wonderful show. Its in Japanese, so you do have to read surtitles if you don't speak the language, but it's easy and natural enough to do if you are happy to read subtitles for films generally.

For me, 4 and a half stars of sustained magical musical wonder.