Bored of Les Miserables? Try Death Note!
We have had no shortage of live action versions of the famous manga this year, for better or worse. While it’s now universally acknowledged that the anime will go down as the best adaptation of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s beloved work, maybe we shouldn’t rule out future attempts, especially ones that choose to make the jump to mediums other than film.
For example…a stage production?
That’s right, Death Note: The Musical actually exists, and is going to be hitting Tokyo theaters this month.
We have no idea how we feel about it, but after having to suffer through the Netflix version, seeing Light and Ryuk burst out into a duet about apples sounds rather refreshing.
According to an article on Crunchyroll –
If certain recent Death Note adaptations are leaving you a little less than pleased, don’t worry — the musical adaptation has returned to Tokyo for a new run.
Death Note: THE MUSICALÂ started out in 2015 as a concept album scored by Frank Wildhorn. Performances went up in Tokyo and Seoul the same year, and earlier this year in Taiwan and Osaka with much of the Tokyo cast. The 2017 cast — led by Kenji Urai and Hayato Kakizawa double-cast as Light and Teppei Koike as L — will be continuing this year’s run in Tokyo.
Kazutaka Ishii, who stepped down as Ryuk for the Osaka performances, is back in the role in Tokyo.
Death Note: THE MUSICALÂ runs ’til September 24 at Tokyo’s New National Theater. Tickets are available for 6,500-13,000 yen.
What do you think? Does this further besmirch the name of Death Note? Do you think this will prove to be a better interpretation than the North American version could ever hope to be? Will L get his own song?!
For those that are curious, you can check out the trailer below to get a taste for what the musical has in store!