A major new production of Manga musical Death Note: The Musical will receive its world premiere at London’s Barbican Theatre.
Featuring a revised script and newly-written songs alongside the original acclaimed score, the reimagined version of the award-winning musical will play a limited debut season for six weeks from 30 July.
Based on the best-selling Manga series of the same name by Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata and Shueisha, the award-winning musical has a score by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, Bonnie & Clyde) with lyrics by Jack Murphy and a book by Ivan Menchell.
Produced in London by HoriPro, Trafalgar Theatre Productions and Pinnacle Productions, in association with the Barbican, the new production will be directed Stephen Whitson, with design by designer Jon Bausor, choreography by Fabian Aloise, orchestration and arrangements by Jason Howland and additional lyrics by Morgan Reilly. Casting will be announced soon.
Commenting on the production, composer Wildhorn said: “I am humbled, honoured and beyond excited to bring Death Note to the Barbican this summer. I hope it’s a step in a beautiful long life for our Manga musical in the West and beyond. So very grateful to HoriPro and Trafalgar for giving our ‘voice’ a chance to be heard!!”
Mr Hori, the chairman of musical’s co-producers, the HoriPro Group, said: “Since its premiere in Tokyo in 2015, our aspiration has always been to bring Death Note to the London stage. We are delighted to present this work in partnership with Sir Howard Panter and Trafalgar Entertainment, a collaboration built on an enduring artistic kinship and shared vision spanning more than three decades. It is also a privilege to return to the Barbican; having brought a wide variety of our productions to this stage for many decades, we are immensely proud to once again call this iconic institution our home in London.”
Howard Panter, the joint CEO and creative director of Trafalgar Entertainment, said: “Our partnership with HoriPro spans more than three decades, and it is a pleasure to work with them to bring this global phenomenon to the London stage for the first time. Following our recent successful summer seasons at the Barbican, we know it is a theatre that demands work of scale and ambition. With Frank Wildhorn’s electrifying score and this exceptional new creative team, we are creating a production that will truly be a landmark, once in a lifetime event.”
Death Note: The Musical premiered in 2015 in Tokyo, Japan, the setting for the original story of a high school student who discovers a notebook owned by Ryuk, the mythical God of Death and uses it to take justice into his own hands. A critically acclaimed 2022 Korean production was nominated for 10 Korea Musical Awards, winning four.
One of the world’s most successful manga titles, Death Note has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and grown into a global cultural phenomenon spanning feature animation, films, television adaptations and an acclaimed Netflix series. Death Note was previously seen in London in a series of sold-out record-breaking concerts at the London Palladium and the Lyric Theatre in 2023.
Angela Thomas
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