‘Sailor Moon’ Stage Musical to Play North American Tour (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Gordon Cox Theater Editor A Japanese musical adaptation of the hit manga and anime franchise “Sailor Moon” will launch a North American tour this spring, playing nearly 20 cities on a route that begins in Pittsburgh in March and ends in New York City the following month.

The tour for “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live” marks the longest sustained U.S. engagement of a Japanese stage show based on a popular manga or anime, following the head-turning success last fall of “Attack On Titan: The Musical,” which played a sold-out, three-day run at New York City Center in October. “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live” is part of a growing, increasingly profitable musical theater trend in Japan, where live stage musicals based on popular manga and anime have become more and more common.

Such shows are generally referred to as “2.5D musicals,” a moniker embraced by the genre’s creators and producers as a nod to the two-dimensional manga and anime that inspire these shows.

With 2.5D musicals gaining significant momentum at the Japanese box office in recent years, international producers are hoping the genre can find similar success in the U.S.