All stories by Nobuko Tanaka on BroadwayStars

Monday, April 4, 2022

“Blood Brothers” Tells a Tangled Tale of Nature Versus Nurture by Nobuko Tanaka

It’s an age-old question: Which is more important in determining the course of our lives, nature or nurture? Actors Hayato Kakizawa and Eiji Wentz grapple with this absorbing issue in the …

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:43AM
Saturday, January 15, 2022

Saitama Gold Theater Players Take Their Final Bow After 15 Years by Nobuko Tanaka

After 15 years of entertaining audiences in Japan and abroad, the actors of Saitama Gold Theater will take the stage for the last time with “Mizu no Eki” (“The Water Station”) this m…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:49PM
Sunday, December 5, 2021

“The Doctor” Diagnoses Society’s Afflictions by Nobuko Tanaka

After its premiere at north London’s Almeida Theatre in 2019, Robert Icke’s The Doctor earned glowing reviews and plaudits, most notably Olivier Award nominations for best new play and b…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:05AM
Monday, November 29, 2021

Rena Matsui Tackles Shakespeare in an All-Female “Julius Caesar” by Nobuko Tanaka

Rena Matsui always knew she wanted to enter the acting world, and launching her career by performing in idol-pop groups was all part of her plan. She started out as a member of the Nagoya-ba…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:48AM
Monday, September 27, 2021

Family Drama Hits Close to Home for Keito Okamoto by Nobuko Tanaka

When Keito Okamoto was offered the title role in French dramatist Florian Zeller’s latest work, The Son, he felt the play was written about him. “It was completely astonishing,” he say…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:34PM
Sunday, July 25, 2021

Obscured Truths Come to Light in Hideki Noda’s “Fakespeare” by Nobuko Tanaka

William Shakespeare is one of the world’s most influential playwrights, but his life continues to be shrouded in mystery. Since his death in 1616 at the age of 52, no handwritten manuscrip…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:48AM
Wednesday, March 10, 2021

“Yabuhara Kengyo” Shows Audiences that Justice isn’t Always Blind by Nobuko Tanaka

Colorful graffiti marks the facade of a shuttered shopping mall. People navigate their way around chain partitions and orange traffic cones. It’s a scene that looks familiar to anyone who …

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:18PM
Saturday, March 6, 2021

Secrets of the Oslo Accords Come to Light on Stage by Nobuko Tanaka

He may live in New York, but playwright J.T. Rogers has spent a lot of time in Japan over the past few years, and it’s not just because he loves the food there (“especially the white sli…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:13AM
Saturday, February 6, 2021

Expect Revivals and VR from the Stage as Theater Continues to Deal with the Coronavirus by Nobuko Tanaka

In his 1964 anthem, “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” Bob Dylan sings: “As the present now / Will later be past / The order is rapidly fadin’…” At the time, he may have had soci…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:24AM
Friday, December 11, 2020

“Knife” Critiques Human Nature Through Mime And Dance by Nobuko Tanaka

Sometimes a gesture of gratitude comes in the form of a carte blanche. Akira Shirai, the departing artistic director of Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT), decided to show thanks to his long-time …

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 09:26AM
Saturday, November 14, 2020

Contemporary Performing Arts Festival Stays Open to New Possibilities Despite COVID-19 by Nobuko Tanaka

Maybe 13 is an unlucky number? Contemporary theater’s annual Festival/Tokyo is known for its focus on young artists and edgy productions, but, for its 13th edition, it has had to deal wit…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 03:17AM
Saturday, November 7, 2020

Noh Theater Struggles To Survive The Pandemic by Nobuko Tanaka

Kennosuke Nakamori’s sonorous voice fills a small room as he practices the lines of a traditional noh play, even though he hasn’t performed before a live audience in months. He moves gra…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:47AM
Friday, November 6, 2020

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Conjures Dark Fantasies by Nobuko Tanaka

A Midsummer Night’s Dream has the makings of a fairy tale: a forest full of meddling fairies, magic potions that spark romantic fancies, a series of comedic errors and a happy ending. And …

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:21AM
Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Contemporary Performing Arts Festival Stays Open To New Possibilities Despite COVID-19 by Nobuko Tanaka

Maybe 13 is an unlucky number? Contemporary theater’s annual Festival/Tokyo is known for its focus on young artists and edgy productions, but for its 13th edition it has had to deal with…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 09:01AM
Thursday, October 22, 2020

“Twelve Angry Men”; 1950’s Courtroom Drama about Confronting Prejudice Still Rings True by Nobuko Tanaka

Back in January, when English director Lindsay Posner visited Tokyo for preparatory meetings to stage the iconic courtroom drama Twelve Angry Men at Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon in Shibuya Ward,…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:53AM
Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Toyooka Theater Festival Brings French Flair to Japan’s Theater Scene by Nobuko Tanaka

Performing arts festivals and opportunities to enjoy live entertainment have been few and far between this year due to the ongoing pandemic, but dramatist Oriza Hirata, 57, has hopes for his…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:01AM
Saturday, August 8, 2020

To Be (Online) Or Not To Be (Online), That Is The Question For Japan’s Theaters by Nobuko Tanaka

This past week, health officials called for more than 800 theatergoers to be tested for COVID-19 after at least 59 cases were traced back to performances of a play titled Werewolf in Tokyo�…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:38AM
Friday, July 24, 2020

Live-Stage Performances Are Taking Roads Less Traveled With Trucks And Virtual Reality by Nobuko Tanaka

As the new reality of daily life amid a global pandemic settles in, many people are getting accustomed to somewhat isolated lifestyles as they abide by social distancing measures and work re…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 02:07AM
Monday, June 15, 2020

Japan’s Acting Troupes Turn Your Home Into A Stage by Nobuko Tanaka

Troupes turn to telework in a bid to keep audiences entertained The performing arts are built on interactions between live audiences and artists — whether ballet dancers, circus performers…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 06:48AM
Thursday, June 11, 2020

World Theatre Festival Shizuoka Heads Online In Desperate Times by Nobuko Tanaka

On April 3, Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) announced the cancellation of this year’s edition of its annual World Theatre Festival Shizuoka, which was due to be held from April 25 t…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:50PM
Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Must the Show Go On During the COVID-19 Outbreak? by Nobuko Tanaka

Responses to the spread of the COVID-19 virus have varied widely from country to country and are changing from one day to the next. So, while Broadway shows in New York have shut down for at…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:43PM
Friday, March 27, 2020

Ken Watanabe: A Conquistador in “Pizarro” by Nobuko Tanaka

Ever since his Oscar-nominated Hollywood debut as Lord Katsumoto in 2003’s The Last Samurai, Ken Watanabe has been the best-known Japanese actor in the world. Along with other memorable s…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:56PM
Thursday, February 27, 2020

Updating “Romeo and Juliet” in a Bid to Fight Prejudice in Japan by Nobuko Tanaka

With William Shakespeare’s iconic use of English lost in translation, bold and reimagined versions of his works have long blossomed in Japan, as dramatists have mainly taken inspiration fr…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:18PM
Monday, February 24, 2020

The Art of Condensing Shakespeare’s Oeuvre by Nobuko Tanaka

In theater, as in daily life, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Such was the case with Tempo 12-nen no Shakespeare (Shakespeare in Year 12 of the Tempo Era) by dramatist and w…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 07:00PM
Saturday, February 8, 2020

Bringing Haruki Murakami’s “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” to Japan’s Stages by Nobuko Tanaka

Haruki Murakami is probably Japan’s best-known living writer — a worldwide bestseller with novels translated into at least 50 languages. Yet, despite that, dramatizations of the 71-year-…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:17PM
Friday, January 24, 2020

“Fortune” Updates Faust’s Devilish Deal by Nobuko Tanaka

Japanese theater gets off to a flying start in 2020 with a collaboration between leading British and Japanese creators on the world premiere of a major new play being staged in Japanese. Pos…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:53PM
Tuesday, January 7, 2020

The Year That Musicals took on Japanese Stages by Nobuko Tanaka

As the curtain falls on 2019’s theater scene in Japan, a continuing rise in the popularity of musicals now sees them clearly positioned at the center of the country’s entertainment mains…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:54AM
Friday, December 27, 2019

Bringing a Greek Tragedy to 21st-Century Japan by Nobuko Tanaka

What is it about stories from the ancient world that attracts contemporary dramatists? One person well-placed to address that question is 37-year-old Japanese theater director Kunio Sugihara…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:37PM
Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Dr. Hoffmann’s Sanatorium: Delving Deep into the Weird World of Kafka by Nobuko Tanaka

The starting point for Dr. Hoffmann’s Sanatorium was, according to the play’s Japanese creator, Keralino Sandorovich, the idea that “someone found an unpublished novel by the great Fra…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 09:27PM
Saturday, December 21, 2019

Capitalizing on the Pull of Experimental Japanese Theatre by Nobuko Tanaka

Shuntaro Matsubara’s first contact with live theatre was in 2014, when he saw a production of German dramatist Bertolt Brecht’s 1930 play Fatzer (aka Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatze…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 05:25AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards