Tokyo Weekender - October 2017

Society
TOKYO’S LONGEST RUNNING SOCIAL COLUMN WITH BILL HERSEY
Exile’s Iwata Takanori and director Christopher Nolan at
Warner Brothers’ press conference for Dunkirk
Maybe I’m wrong but looking back it seems August
even with the heat was busier than ever, and from
the looks of happenings coming up, October and the
rest of 2017 will be even busier. That’s the way I and
I know many of you like it.
I’m so happy the Japanese seem to be getting back into the Broadway
show and international musical scene. I really enjoyed the international
production of one of my all-time favorite musicals, West
Side Story, this summer. If you’re into Broadway, ballet, and showbiz
you have a lot of things to choose from this fall and winter. I can’t list
them all here, but will list a few I’ve
seen and really enjoyed. The Argentine
show Fuerza Bruta is back with
an exciting new production titled
Beyond the Next Level, which runs
through December 10. I saw it two
years ago, and like Cirque du Soleil,
it really is mind-boggling. My French
Canadian friend Guy Laliberté who,
along with another street performer,
created the always sold out Cirque
du Soleil shows, is bringing one in
that I hadn’t heard of. It’s titled Kurios:
Cabinet of Curiosities and it will
run from February 7 until April 8
next year at Odaiba Big Top. I was
surprised to see that there’s a Japanese
version of the off-Broadway
play Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The
off-the-wall production is being promoted
as a special show and will just
have two days of performances in
Tokyo on October 14 and 15, and one
in Osaka on October 17. If you see it
you’ll understand why they label it
very special.
I’ve seen the off-Broadway award
winner Blast endless times and had
many parties for their cast over the
years in Roppongi. The show is an
exciting combo of percussion instruments,
dance and endless energy. I went to their last show in Tokyo
before they toured all over Japan. Since I last saw the show years ago,
the producers have tied up with Disney. This, of course, means money,
and the talent, the sets, and the choreography add up to a real winner.
The 2,000 seats at Shibuya’s ORB Theatre were sold out, and the show
got several standing ovations. I just learned that ORB is bringing in
a production of another of my favorites, Evita, for their fifth anniversary
early next year. There’ll also be a Japanese co-production of
the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Zepp Theater 11/7–11/12, and Parco
11/16–12/3.
Thanks to Junko Koshino. I had the privilege of seeing the latest
Drum Tao show before they went to Paris and Singapore. The awesome
drumming, the shamisen and koto playing, the choreography,
the high-tech stage sets, and Junko’s costumes added up to entertainment
at its very best. After the show I met a host of interesting people
at a party Junko and her husband Hiroyuki Suzuki hosted at Vanity,
a popular club in Roppongi. These included the new French Ambassador
Laurent Pic, Mikawa Kenichi, and actor Tatsumi Takuro. Mikawa-san
will be performing at Dewi Sukarno’s 20th Annual Imperial
Banquet at Meguro Gajoen on October 14. The Tao drummers will be
back in Tokyo by then and they have shows at the Shinagawa Prince
Hotel from September 16 to October 29.
As they say, “there’s no business like show business,” but I feel that
there’s probably been enough of it in this month's column. It’s time to
move onto the social scene...
WARNER BROTHERS
PRESS CONFERENCE FOR
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN
The big Academy Hills room on the
49th floor of the Mori Tower was wallto-wall
enthusiastic journalists, as the
special guest that day was Christopher
Nolan whose film Dunkirk has been a
huge box office hit wherever it’s been
shown. The crowd’s feeling about the
film and Christopher was great, and
I appreciated the way he handled all
the questions. As he explained a few
times, “We interviewed men who had
actually been there.” He wanted to
create suspense and the idea of survival,
and he wanted the film to have
the power to shock. In order to appeal
to young people, he visited drama
schools and looked to use acting students
who hadn’t been in films before.
As a director, he feels like an architect
or conductor (he really likes to work
with sounds) who is bringing many
different elements together.
Warner Brothers had brought
in Exile’s star member Iwata Takanori
as a guest for the second half of the
conference. It was a good choice as the
actor-musician is a big fan of Nolan, and so knew what he was talking
about. At the end of the interview, he was really happy when Nolan presented
him with an autographed copy of the Dunkirk screenplay. Don’t
miss this film – and try to see it in an IMAX theater.
FORSYTH’S PERUVIAN NATIONAL
DAY AT WESTIN HOTEL
Peruvian Ambassador Harold W. Forsyth and his wife Veronica were
only here a short time before they hosted the reception to celebrate
the 196th anniversary of Peru’s Independence Day. For the event,
they chose the elegant Kaede Room in the European-influenced Westin
Hotel. It was packed with people and I was surprised at the number
of VIPs whom I thought were out of Japan for the holidays but
were there that evening. Familiar faces in the crowd included top
46 | OCTOBER 2017 | TOKYO WEEKENDER