‘Spirited Away’ Review: Stage Version of the Oscar Winning Animated Film is Less Than the Sum of Its Impressive Parts
variety.comDavid Benedict Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 animated film “Spirited Away” won everything from the Oscar for Best Animated Feature to Berlin’s Golden Bear.
That there’s an audience for a stage version was evidenced by its 2022 Tokyo run selling out in four minutes. Now in London and performed in Japanese with English surtitles, sales are brisk in the 2,263-seat London Coliseum with the limited run now extended by five weeks.
But what this giant, three-hour spectacle proves above all is that while being faithful is wholly admirable in a relationship, it’s not the most theatrical answer to the question of how to adapt a masterpiece.
It was Disney who cornered the market in staging animated classics, initially with “Beauty and the Beast” but then, in a shrewd move, with the considerably more uniquely theatrical “The Lion King” which is far more than simply a copy.
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