Pacific Overtures
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Performing Arts
Pacific Overtures Details
“Priceless and peerless…a thrilling work of theatricality.” ―Wayman Wong, San Francisco ExaminerFor over three decades, Stephen Sondheim has been the foremost composer and lyricist writing regularly for Broadway. His substantial body of work now stands as one of the most sustained achievements of the American stage.Pacific Overtures, originally produced in 1976, combines an unsurpassed mastery of the American musical with such arts as Kabuki theatre, haiku, dance, and masks to recount Commander Matthew Perry’s 1835 opening of Japan and its consequences right up to the present.This new edition of Pacific Overtures incorporates substantial revisions made by the authors for the successful 1984 revival.
Reviews
Although this is an unusual idea for a musical, the opening of Japan in the 1850's is certainly a dramatic enough incident to warrant some treatment.The focus of the musical is to see the events through the eyes of the Japanese. The Americans were the only nation to successfully shatter Japanese isolation which has been in place since the early 1500s.The musical works well in the first act but gets mired down in the second dealing with relations with ither nations and the emergence of Japan as a force within the world. Here it looses its intimacy.I saw this musical on Broadway during its limited run in the mid 1970's. I had the same opinion then as now.It still has some interesting elements of theatre and shows Sondheim experimenting with different forms to sind new ways to express himself and appeal to an audience.
