Pacific Overtures musical review, Menier Chocolate Factory

Sario Solomon, Saori Oda and Masashi Fujimoto in 'Pacific Overtures' at Menier Chocolate Factory

“One of the most original and ebullient musicals in town”

(Image credit: Manuel Harlan)

published 14 December 2023

"Pacific Overtures" hasn't often been revived since its first run on Broadway in 1976, said Clive Davis in The Times. That may be because, even by Stephen Sondheim's standards, the subject matter is singular: written in 1976, it is about how the US forced hermetic, shogunate Japan to open up to commerce from 1853. But if that doesn't sound very enticing, do not be deterred, for Matthew White's new production is a startlingly entertaining treat which, in a stripped-back staging, has the "ethereal beauty of scenes sketched on a vase". A collaboration with Japan's Umeda Arts Theatre (it has already been staged in Osaka and Tokyo), this "thrilling" production is a "revelation", agreed Nick Curtis in the Evening Standard. With "intricate" music, witty lyrics and an "exquisite" traverse setting, "Pacific Overtures" is a "wonderful, bijou surprise".

The musical's storyline leaves it open to charges of "cultural appropriation", said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. But "Pacific Overtures" is never "thudding or simplistic": it is a "subtle" piece that "sparkles with knowing humour around cultural stereotypes". The song "Welcome to Kanagawa", in which a madam prepares her geishas for the arriving Americans, swerves the "reductive clichés of 'Miss Saigon' with its tongue-in-cheek humour"; and "Please Hello" – a clever number about attempts to woo Japan into trade deals – is a "blast". The staging brings "great visual wit and wonder", and the comedic choreography (by Ashley Nottingham) is superb. It adds up to "one of the most original and ebullient musicals in town".

I didn't love it, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. The episodic structure makes it feel a bit "emotionally arid", and though it contains some "achingly lovely songs", the musical "arguably falls short of a Sondheim masterpiece". Still, there's no faulting the largely Japanese and British east Asian cast, including Jon Chew as the narrator (or "Reciter"). And there's much to admire in the detail, including the use of Japanese puppetry, origami and video wizardry. This is one for Sondheim's many fans, and the "intellectually curious".