PACIFIC OVERTURES

About the show

Nippon. The Floating Kingdom. One of Stephen Sondheim’s most ambitious, rarely seen creations comes to the Chocolate Factory in a co-production with Umeda Arts Theater in Japan, where it has already been a huge success in Tokyo and Osaka. The story of the arrival of the West in 1853 in isolated Japan is seen from an imagined Japanese perspective. The score is filled with some of Sondheim’s most ravishing music, including ‘Someone in a Tree’, ‘Pretty Lady’ and ‘A Bowler Hat’. Pacific Overtures completes the Menier’s trilogy of Sondheim/Weidman musicals following their critically acclaimed productions of Assassins and Road Show. Please note: Pacific Overtures was written in 1976. It explores themes of racism, colonialism, sexual objectification & threat towards women and generational trauma incited by the opening of Japan to the West.