David Bowie's Lazarus makes its debut in Japan, bringing his love for the country full circle
Back in 2013, David Bowie met with his friend, the renowned theatre, film, and television producer Robert Fox, and revealed his desire to create a musical based on Thomas Newton, the character he played in the 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth . Fox suggested they bring Irish playwright Enda Walsh on board, a genius decision as Walsh's raw and free-flowing writing style frequently explores themes of identity and isolation in ways that skirt the absurd and lay bare the fragility of the human condition, creating a frisson of tension that's not unlike the tone of the original film.
The collaboration gave birth to Lazarus , a jukebox musical that weaves Bowie's songs into a dreamlike world set in New York, where Newton, a humanoid alien, now lives decades after the events of the film, alone in his apartment… and in his head. Cultural influences from Japan, a country that Bowie long held an affection for, serve to colour the narrative, so it's fitting that now, nearly 10 years after the musical debuted in New York City on 18 November 2015, Japan is able to return the love for the rock legend, with Lazarus opening at the Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT) on 31 May.
▼ The main cast, with director Akira Shirai (left), who has directed all of the Japanese versions of Walsh's plays, including Ballyturk and Medicine .
At a press conference held ahead of opening night, Shirai said it was a great honour to present Bowie and Walsh's work for the first time in Japan. In describing what audiences can expect to see from the Japanese production, he said:
'While it is billed as a musical, it is a piece that cannot really be defined within the usual boundaries of a musical — it is outside the standard, or perhaps without any standard at all. It doesn't fit neatly into the categories of drama, musical, or concert'.
Fitting neatly into norms is something neither Bowie nor Walsh would ever likely want to do, and this work presents itself as a thrilling theatrical journey that pushes against ordinary restraints, much like the characters on stage. Over the course of roughly two hours, every character is pushed to their limit, teetering on the edge of love, life, grief, death, and insanity in ways that highlight the frailty and strength of the human spirit, inspiring the audience to think beyond ordinary realms of possibility. It's a roller-coaster of a journey you won't want to miss, and it's helmed by Mitsuru Matsuoka, who's been fronting the band SOPHIA for 30 years.
Playing the main role of Newton, Matsuoka brings his rock star energy to the stage, pouring out vulnerability and rage in equal measures that make him seem at once like a frail bird with a broken wing and a lion about to break free from a cage. It's a role he feels he was destined to play, saying, 'If I hadn't encountered David Bowie when I was 14, I probably wouldn't have become a band member, SOPHIA wouldn't exist, and I wouldn't be where I am today.' Matsuoka believes he's been guided by Bowie, and has a deep respect for him, seeing himself as 'a messenger tasked with delivering Bowie's last message, his will'.
Matsuoka certainly gives his all to the role, belting out songs like 'Lazarus' and 'Where Are We Now?' with an ease that draws from a life lived drinking at Bowie's creative well. His presence on stage is matched, and quite nearly eclipsed, by Rio Uehara, a classically trained vocalist who harnesses both baritone and tenor ranges to bring light and shade to the menacing character of Valentine, making us feel both attracted and repulsed by him.
During one memorable moment, Valentine appears in a cloak of black feathers, a clever costuming choice that visually connects the character to Ryuk, the black feather-shouldered shinigami ('god of death') from the hugely popular Japanese manga and anime series Death Note . There are striking parallels between Ryuk and Valentine, who both find pleasure in provoking people for their own entertainment while disrupting the protagonist's journey with a disregard for human life and morality. The power to inflict death fizzes in their fingers like an ever-enticing itch that needs scratching.
In stark contrast, Erika Toyohara brings light to the stage in the role of Girl, with an innocence that's strong and unyielding. The brightness of her character is matched by the brightness of her voice, which brings newfound poignancy to the opening lyrics when she sings 'Life on Mars'.
'It's a god-awful small affair / To the girl with the mousy hair / But her mummy is yelling, 'No' / And her daddy has told her to go'
Emiko Suzuki, in the role of Elly, does an equally beautiful job with 'Changes', which sees her bounding about the stage and masterfully handling outfit changes, all while hitting her notes flawlessly.
Every member of the cast — including the ensemble — delivers strong performances, with Goto Watabe as Zach (above), Yusuke Toyama as Michael (below)…
▼ …and Tsubasa Sakiyama in the role of Ben.
Mayuko Kominami draws upon her classical dance and voice training to play the role of both Maemi (above) and Japanese Woman (below) with remarkable poise.
The set is like a character all of its own, with a stack of television boxes centre stage acting as a nod to the old sets that Newton watches in The Man Who Fell to Earth . The images that appear on the TVs provide a sense of the wider world outside the confines of the small set, while bursts of white noise serve to connect the audience with the action on stage, tuning us into the same frequency as the characters' distress.
Images are also projected onto the scrim, a large background screen that appears opaque when lit from the front but becomes transparent when lit from behind, helping to create dramatic visual effects. Not only does it allow for massive projections to enhance the narrative, it also lets us see the live band on stage at select moments and creates space for the Japanese surtitles to be creatively placed, with words tumbling down the screen at one point to match Newton's frenetic, descent-into-madness energy.
Only at the very end, when the ceiling of Newton's room lifts and the set opens up to reveal the full space of the stage, are we able to catch our breath and feel a sense of release from the tension. It's confronting and thrilling in the way you expect from good theatre, and to see it in Japan, a place that inspired Bowie's creativity, is a very special thing indeed.
While the actors speak Japanese on stage, all songs are sung in English, as was Bowie's wish for overseas productions, so even if you don't understand Japanese, the show will give you goosebumps. Lazarus will be performed at the Kanagawa Arts Theatre until 14 June, before moving to Festival Hall in Osaka for two matinee shows on 28 and 29 June. Tickets can be purchased at the links below.
Tickets for Kanagawa Arts Theatre:
Kyodo Tokyo (official ticket site in English), e+, Ticket Pia (P-code: 533418), Lawson Ticket (L-code: 31548), Rakuten Ticket
Tickets for Festival Hall in Osaka:
Festival Hall, CN Playguide, e+, Ticket Pia (P-code: 533‐620), Lawson Ticket (L-code: 52387), Rakuten Ticket
Related: Lazarus Japan Images: Press release
● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
SoraNews24
3 hours ago
- SoraNews24
New One Piece video game requires you to throw real punches to win
Luffy's latest adventure is a (sonic) blast from the past. Fans of One Piece will tell you that protagonist Luffy's greatest strengths are his indomitable optimism and charismatic draw that turns not just strangers, but even one-time adversaries into true-blue friends and allies of the Straw Hat Pirates. It's impossible to deny, however, that whether they eventually become friends or not, Luffy's hero's journey also often involves him punching people really, really hard, and it's this part that the new One Piece arcade game is going to focus on. 【#ONEPIECEDAY'25速報⑬】『ONE PIECE』のアーケードゲームプロジェクト始動🥊その名も『ONE PIECE ドーンストライク』大海賊時代没入型パンチングゲームで、ロケテスト版ではドフラミンゴとカイドウと対戦可能！ 👇生配信をみる👇 — ONE PIECE スタッフ【公式】/ Official (@Eiichiro_Staff) August 10, 2025 The official One Piece Twitter account has announced that One Piece Do-n Strike is currently in development. Don't bother looking for a joystick, though, because this is a game you play by throwing actual punches. So how does that work? Towards the front of the cabinet is a protrusion that pops up, shaped like a floor-mounted striking bag. After putting a coin in the machine, you slip on a boxing glove (righties and lefties are both accommodated), then, when prompted to by the on-screen text/graphics, you punch the target as hard as you can. The machine then measures how hard the impact was and converts that into a numerical value used to calculate how much damage you did to your on-screen opponent. The preview image shows space to list the results of three punches, suggesting you've got three strikes in which to topple your foe. Now, cultured gamers looking at these images are no doubt immediately thinking of Sonic Blast Man, a 1990 Japanese arcade release by developer Taito, now a subsidiary of Square Enix. Sonic Blast Man used a similar setup to One Piece Do-n Strike's , but with an American comic book-style hero punching out giant monsters, criminals, and asteroids, among other threats to humanity. ▼ Sonic Blast Man being played The history of punching games in Japanese arcades goes back even further, to Namco's Knock Down in 1981, but it, and its 1991 sequel Knock Down 90 , were a bit more like carnival games than video games, since they simply display a numeric score with no video monitor for graphics, characters, or story. ▼ Knock Down 90 (the Hajime no Ippo illustration has been added by the arcade operator, and wasn't an official part of the game's branding) Most recently, in spring of 2024 Genda GiGO Entertainment, the successor to Sega's arcade operation business, partnered with Japanese mixed martial arts promotion organization BreakingDown to produce BreakingDown Hard Puncher Arcade. The front section for the cabinet looks to be an exact match for One Piece Do-n Strike , but the newer game will have a vertically oriented monitor. As for One Piece Do-n Strike's title, don , elongated to do-n for extra emphasis here, is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a forceful impact (it's the same don that's part of the kabedon /wall pound romantic trope that appears in anime and manga). There's a bit of wordplay going on too, as the teaser image shows Donquixote Doflamingo as the player's opponent, and the game's announcement says he'll also be the available enemy in the game's upcoming arcade location test, the date for which has yet to be revealed. There's also no word as to when the game's final version will get a general release, but there are plans to live-stream the location test on YouTube here. Considering there's a permanent One Piece gym now open in Japan, maybe some of its bodybuilding members will show up at the test to test their strength. Source: Twitter/@Eiichiro_Staff via Anime News Network/Anita Tai Top image: Twitter/@Eiichiro_Staff Insert images: Twitter/@Eiichiro_Staff, Wikipedia/物売り ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Tokyo Weekender
4 hours ago
- Tokyo Weekender
Why Zombies Aren't Scary in Japan
Kabuki was believed to have been created in the 17th century and hasn't stopped evolving for the past 400 years, especially when it comes to its stories. The classics written during the Edo period are still the most popular, but new plays are being written all the time. In 2009, for instance, the dramatist Kankuro Kudo wrote Oedo Living Dead, a kabuki tale about zombies in feudal Japan. It was briefly screened in early July this year as part of the Cinema Kabuki initiative that brings filmed kabuki performances to movie theaters. Almost every day of the limited run, the cinemas were packed with curious audiences, probably because zombies are almost never seen in kabuki. Actually, they are rarely seen in all forms of Japanese pop culture. List of Contents: Night of the Laughing Dead Zombies Might Be Too Foreign for Japan Japanese Monsters vs. Western Zombies Related Posts Poster for 'Oedo Living Dead' | Cinema Kabuki Night of the Laughing Dead Even if you haven't seen any of the trailers and went into Oedo Living Dead with no expectations, the play makes it clear what kind of story it is within the first few seconds by introducing two actors in fish costumes playing kusaya and complaining about their smell . Kusaya are fermented fish from the Izu Islands characterized by their overwhelmingly pungent aroma. The story then segues into the kusaya sauce used by the vendor Oyo, bringing the dead to life and the enterprising Hansuke using the same sauce to put the zombies to work, since they won't bite a living human slathered in the stinky concoction. The play then becomes a commentary on the exploitation of Japanese temp workers. It's a satirical comedy that has its darker moments. During one scene, when dozens of zombies suddenly push their undead hands through a shoji screen, you realize the story could have worked as a straight-up horror. 'Zombies in feudal Japan' is a cool premise that would've been additionally aided by the creatively gory makeup used in the play. So why did Kankuro Kudo go with a humorous take? And why do so many Japanese productions, from kabuki to live-action movies and anime, treat zombies as comedic fodder? Still from Tokyo Zombie (2005) | IMDB Zombies Might Be Too Foreign for Japan Tokyo Zombie, released in 2005, deals with a zombie apocalypse but approaches the topic as a joke, like when one of the main characters thinks he becomes undead after being bitten but is actually fine because he was attacked by a zombie with dentures. The Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (2023) anime features a more end-of-the-world horror setting but is ultimately an uplifting tale about going out into the world and doing everything you ever wanted to do because tomorrow is not promised. Then there's Battlefield Baseball ( Jigoku Koshien ), released in 2003, about undead baseball. While there are many examples of Japan treating zombies as serious threats, like in the Resident Evil video games , they are usually set in the West and feature foreign protagonists. That's part of the reason why Japan doesn't really seem to fear zombies. They look at the idea as a Western invention that's a bit too silly to be scary. Japan takes horror very seriously , and in Japanese horror, the malevolent force is often connected to nature and clashes with some aspect of modernity. No matter how fantastical the premise, Japanese horror tends to rely on familiar elements that get twisted into something sinister, like a VHS tape being a harbinger of death in The Ring. Corpses simply aren't part of everyday life in Japan. Not that people don't die here, but, after they do, they usually get cremated, with the country only having a handful of Western-style cemeteries where reanimate-able bodies are put in the ground. Depiction of vengeful Onryo spirit by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (c.1836) Japanese Monsters vs. Western Zombies That isn't to suggest that Japan is unafraid of the undead. They can be found everywhere, including in kabuki, folklore, mythology, legends and more. But they are very different from Western zombies. When the dead come back to life in Japan, they usually do it in the form of an onryo avenging ghost ( typically of a mistreated woman ) or a yokai supernatural creature. Both of them often straddle the border between the physical and the spectral world. Though not always there corporally, they still interact with the world of the living, or become corporeal through intense emotions. On the whole, though, Japanese monsters tend to be less biological. Even Godzilla was once portrayed as a supernatural creature in the movie Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack , when he was possessed by the ghosts of those who died in World War II. Zombies are, by definition, almost entirely biological and that already puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to scaring Japanese audiences. Hone Onna (Bone Women) are the reanimated remains of women who died with intense feelings of love that they continue to seek beyond the grave. Appearing to potential lovers as living and in their prime, these creatures spend night after night with their unwittingly necrophiliac lovers, sapping their life force away until the victim dies. Yama-uba , meanwhile, are cannibalistic yokai mountain witches with bulletproof skin, knife teeth and a second mouth on the tops of their heads. It's true that zombies have numbers on their side, but Japanese paranormal monsters also come in bulk. When hundreds-to-thousands of different yokai and oni demons parade through the streets, it's called the Hyakki Yagyo , a motif that has been appearing in Japanese art for centuries. In such a culture, it's a little hard to take zombies seriously as horror antagonists. Discover Tokyo, Every Week Get the city's best stories, under-the-radar spots and exclusive invites delivered straight to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy . Related Posts The Bizarre and Violent Tales of Japanese Mermaids, or Ningyo 10 Famous Yokai: Spirits of Japanese Folklore From Butt Eyes to Scrotum Houses: 5 Weird Japanese Yokai That Are Actually Harmless
Kyodo News
9 hours ago
- Kyodo News
Bugs are popular pets in nature-loving Japan, buzzing with lessons about ecology and species
TOKYO - The pet of choice in Japan, as much as cuddly kitties and playful puppies, is the humble bug. The bug has been a key part of Japanese culture from the Heian era classic 'The Tale of Genji' to popular modern-day manga and animation like 'Mushishi,' featuring insect-like supernatural creatures. Japanese people appreciate the glitter of fireflies let loose in the garden or the gentle chirping of crickets kept in a little cage. You can feed the bug pets watermelon, but special jelly pet food for bugs is also available at stores. Naturally, bugs are on sale as well, with the more esoteric ones selling for 20,000 yen ($133). Here, crawly and buzzing critters are not just relegated to the scientific realm of the entomologist working on a taxidermy of pinned butterflies. Celebrities boast about their fascination with bug-hunting as their hobbies just like a Western movie star might talk about his yacht or golf score. The bug as companion is an essential part of what's observed, enjoyed and cared for in everyday life, reflecting a deeply rooted celebration of humankind's oneness with nature. 'They are so tiny. If you catch and study them, you're sure to discover something new,' says Munetoshi Maruyama, professor of bioenvironmental sciences at Kyushu University, whose fascination with bugs began as a child, like many Japanese. 'They are so beautiful in shape and form.' One thrill that comes from studying insects is discovering a new species, simply because there are more than 1.2 million known kinds of insects, far more than mammals, which translates to a lot of undiscovered ones, said Maruyama, who has discovered 250 new insect species himself and shrugs that off as a relatively small number. Japan differs from much of the West in encouraging interaction with bugs from childhood, with lots of books written for children, as well as classes and tours. 'In Japan, kids love bugs. You can even buy a net at a convenience store,' he said. 'It's fantastic that bugs can serve as a doorway to science.' The fact some insects go through metamorphoses, transforming from a larva to a butterfly, for instance, adds to the excitement, allowing kids to observe the stages of a life span, Maruyama said. Tracing the movement of bugs can be a way to study global warming, too, while so-called 'social insects,' like bees and ants show intelligence in how they communicate, remember routes to find their way back to their nests or burrow elaborate underground paths as colonies. Because bugs carry out important functions in the ecosystem, such as pollinating crops and becoming food for birds and other wildlife, human life isn't ultimately sustainable if all bugs were to disappear from earth. The love affair with bugs was clear at an exhibit in Tokyo, aptly called 'The Great Insect Exhibition,' running through the end of this month at the Sky Tree Tower, where crowds of children gathered around trees inside indoor cages so they could observe and touch the various beetles. One kind of rhinoceros beetle known as Hercules, which originated in the Caribbean but is now also found in Japan, is reputed to be the biggest beetle on record, although it's just several inches in length. Its back coat is a shiny khaki color, though such shades change depending on the season. The other parts, like its horn and delicate but spiky legs, are dark. 'We want the kids to feel the emotions and joy of actually touching the insects here. That's really positive for the workings of a child's brain,' said Toyoji Suzuki, one of the event's organizers, who insisted everyone, including adults, touch the bottom of the beetles' horns and wings to feel how surprisingly soft and fluffy they are. Four-year-old Asahi Yamauchi, who was at the exhibit with his grandmother and getting his photo taken inside a special installation that made it look like he was inside a beetle, loves bugs as much as he loves dinosaurs and has what he called a cute beetle as a pet at home. 'My friend had one so I wanted one,' he said.
