How can you forget France? The théâtre du Châtelet (who just did a sold out run of les mis in French) coproduced An American in Paris, and their production of Singin' in the Rain, which they did 3 times in a few years, was supposed to transfer to NYC but the coproducer was Weinstein so... The former director of the Théâtre du Châtelet continued to produce new productions : Hello Dolly, A funny thing happened on the way to the forum, Cabaret. And all of these shows are in English with French subtitles. Sorry for the rant, I wrote my master's thesis about it 😅
Original French musicals, too. Romeo et Juliette, Mozart L’Opera Rock, 1789, Le Rouge et le Noir, to name just a few that Takarazuka has done translated productions of.
There's a town called Bochum in Germany that has been performing Andrew Lloyd Webber's STARLIGHT EXPRESS since 1988 in a specially-made theater for the musical. The expensive seats swivel so you can catch the trains/actors without straining your neck. Someday I want to go there and watch it.
Germany has an amazing theater scene! And the productions are bonkers big! I saw Jekyll and Hyde over there and the entire set lifted up like in the original Sunset Blvd. It is probably the best version I've see of J&H to date. Plus they are not afraid to push the boundaries over there. Korea also has an amazing scene and is where a lot of musicals are starting to workshop first.
Hong Kong has a vibrant performing art scene. We spent a lot of money and time producing musical theater shows but only a few of them are broadway level to be honest. However, since we speak Cantonese and it's language that's slowly got push out because of political reasons. We strive to write a lot of original Cantonese musicals and plays. Since all our venues are government-owned, a show will only run for one weekend (with 5 shows) and that's it until they got funding to re-run it (at least 2 years later). almost all shows here receive some form of government funding. there are privately-run shows too but would need a star as the lead because our audience won't pay that much money to see a show typically. I went to Bogota Colombia 2 years ago and they told me they only have one musical theater company and the whole city do two musical theater productions per year. In hong kong we have about 6 musicals (in various scale) per year.
Hi Katherine, a little correction for some of the titles you mentioned as original German musicals, like Elisabeth, Mozart or Rebecca. Those three as well as Tanz der Vampire (Dance of the vampires) are entirely Austrian originals. All of them celebrated their world premiere in Vienna, Austria and at a later stage into their success transfered to Germany under the Stage Entertainment umbrella. The og company in Vienna is called "Vereinigte Bühnen Wien" short 'VBW" who originated and produced these musicals. You could say these are all german (language) originals, but they're not from Germany originally :)
From my perspective, from the last 20 years, Germany right now focuses heavily on easy entertainment. At least in the big theaters. There are lots of Disney shows... like half of all big houses have them, but the real risk takers are the smaller venues. There's a lot of summer and open air entertainment with tons of Evita, Addams Family and Hair productions every year, but there are also many gems that will never grace a stage with over 1500 seats. Unfortunately we will never see a Hadestown or Great Comet in a big theater in Germany. On the other hand... there's still Starlight Express, running since the eighties, with continuing success, which is really one of a kind in the whole world I guess 🙂 it's an interesting time right now. I wish there was more original productions though. But that's the stuff Germany transfers over from Austria a lot.
Hello from Tokyo! Thank you for talking about Japan! Japan is brilliant for streaming and DVD releases! There are a ton of brilliant original musicals in Japan, including 16 musicals that premiered in 2024 in major productions (not counting things like 2.5D) Almost all of them got DVDs. Also both of those Korea clips are from Frankenstein!!! There are two Japanese DVDs of Frankenstein from 2020, and it might get filmed again this year. It was filmed in Korea in 2024, no release announced yet. Also, the Korean recording of Elisabeth from 2022 sounds amazing but it’s only had domestic cinema releases so far.
I love this! I'm teaching a course (ironically also titled Beyond Broadway) at the University of Pittsburgh on musical theatre markets on the global stage next spring. I definitely will be showing this video as part of an introductory lesson.
Oh, nice! It’s fascinating to know that a course like that exists! I’m so curious about what you say about Japan and Korea. Who is the course for, students who want to be actors, or producers, or non-theatre-majors…?
It was me that made the comment about ON Broadway, and IN the West End. It's one of those pet peeves, like saying soundtrack not cast recording! Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame had it's world premier in Berlin years before it came back to the USA. Der Gloeckner Von Notre Dame' was such a technology advanced show and very different from what the show is now. It's worth checking out here on YT. With regards to Hercules, it's opening at the oldest theatre in London - Theatre Royal Drury Lane in Summer 2025.
in portugal, even though we never get lots of large scale musicals (the only ones we get are from international tours and they aren't even performed in theaters but rather arenas). the ones we do get are either all commercial and don't have a big budget or they're HEAVILY promoted and then have a proshot that you can watch on antenna tv (like pbs' great performances) and will then go to that tv's streaming service. the theaters also usually have two or more productions running. however, some of the larger productions, usually by filipe la feria (portugal's biggest musical theater director, his original productions sell out frequently) do copy lots of broadway shows. for example, they've stolen a song from seussical, a song and choreo from holiday inn and, recently, most branding, set and costumes from various beauty and the beast productions from disney, not to talk about the ai images used on show.
This was such an interesting concept. It's curious to discover what audience preferences is in different countires/markets. I got into this as a topic when I heard about the Dance of the Vampires which is HUGE in Germany but hasnt really taken off elsewhere. A friend of mine is following the Bowie Musical Lazarus and chronicling all the different and differences in productions around the globe. It's a big rabbithole.
I was so excited when I saw this video and it does not disappoint. I would recommend French theater as a research topic, they do streaming a lot better, and there are literally proshots of almost every French musical. Some of my favorites are Mozart L'Opéra Rock, Roméo et Juliette, and Starmania, Mozart L'Opéra Rock has been attempted to be translated into English and transfer to Broadway, Starmania has had an actual album, a fully translated version of the show, and plans to transfer to the West End but never did, and Roméo et Juliette actually ran on the West End for about 4 months. Another country whose musical theater industry I find interesting and I suggest is China, which is also progressing very fast like South Korea's(though maybe arguably not as fast as South Korea's since there is less social media traction), China has had translated productions of Broadway and West End musicals, their own original musicals, and tours of mainly German and French musicals.
French musicals are great! A lot of them come to Japan, too. Takarazuka does a lot of them, like 1789, Le Rouge et le Noir, and Mozart L’Opera Rock. The Korean cast of Legende du Roi Arthur sounds amazing as well.
As someone from the UK. Back in the early 2000s we always got clones of Broadway shows like wicked and hairspray and because the Broadway bootlegs existed there was a lot of comparison and Broadway was better. Now, not so much.
I love this type of content! I would highly recommend checking out the Toronto Theatre scene. I’m from Toronto. It's similar to Australia in size, but there’s a wide variety of theatrical material. The largest for-profit theatre is Mirvish. I recommend that the significant non-profit theatres check out Canadian Stage, Soulpepper, Tarragon, Buddies in Bad Times (one of the largest Queer theatres in the world) and Crow’s Theatre. Regionally, there is the Stratford Festival and the Shaw Festival. Also, there is Fringe. Kim’s Convenience and The Drowsy Chaperone began at the Fringe. The most significant musical theatre company is The Musical Stage Company, which creates and develops a lot of new musical theatre.
It did premiere in Japan, but Kunze and Levay’s Beethoven Secret, and a few similar things by Wildhorn (The Man who Laughs, Mata Hari) were done in Korea. Speaking of Kunze and Levay’s shows in Japan, I wonder if people will be more interested in Lady Bess since the two leads are doing voices in the new Rose of Versailles movie?
Hi from Sydney! Usually for Australia shows don't come here for a while I've noticed if it's from the west end we might get it quicker but from broadway it takes like 5 years at least. We got Dear Evan Hansen in October, hadestown comes in February, we got Hamilton in 2021 so that was a bit of a wait. We get Back To The Future & Beetlejuice next year so some musicals coming over quicker. Most of the time the show starts in either Sydney or Melbourne idk if we have a "theatre scene" but tbh I feel like Melbourne has more venues than Sydney. After going to those 2 cities it usually does a tour but sometime other states miss out depending on venue availability.
I would love to hear about other theater epicenters around the US. I’m in Chicago and as you know, we get a ton of tryouts and concerts from Broadway theater folk. Also, can’t forget Broadway Rave!
Thank you for the video! I would suggest discussing about musical theater in Brazil and Canada. Exciting stuff happening in both countries. This is just a hobbit for me, but happy to talk more about both if needed.
How can you forget France? The théâtre du Châtelet (who just did a sold out run of les mis in French) coproduced An American in Paris, and their production of Singin' in the Rain, which they did 3 times in a few years, was supposed to transfer to NYC but the coproducer was Weinstein so... The former director of the Théâtre du Châtelet continued to produce new productions : Hello Dolly, A funny thing happened on the way to the forum, Cabaret. And all of these shows are in English with French subtitles. Sorry for the rant, I wrote my master's thesis about it 😅
Original French musicals, too. Romeo et Juliette, Mozart L’Opera Rock, 1789, Le Rouge et le Noir, to name just a few that Takarazuka has done translated productions of.
There's a town called Bochum in Germany that has been performing Andrew Lloyd Webber's STARLIGHT EXPRESS since 1988 in a specially-made theater for the musical. The expensive seats swivel so you can catch the trains/actors without straining your neck. Someday I want to go there and watch it.
Germany has an amazing theater scene! And the productions are bonkers big! I saw Jekyll and Hyde over there and the entire set lifted up like in the original Sunset Blvd. It is probably the best version I've see of J&H to date. Plus they are not afraid to push the boundaries over there. Korea also has an amazing scene and is where a lot of musicals are starting to workshop first.
Hong Kong has a vibrant performing art scene. We spent a lot of money and time producing musical theater shows but only a few of them are broadway level to be honest. However, since we speak Cantonese and it's language that's slowly got push out because of political reasons. We strive to write a lot of original Cantonese musicals and plays. Since all our venues are government-owned, a show will only run for one weekend (with 5 shows) and that's it until they got funding to re-run it (at least 2 years later). almost all shows here receive some form of government funding. there are privately-run shows too but would need a star as the lead because our audience won't pay that much money to see a show typically. I went to Bogota Colombia 2 years ago and they told me they only have one musical theater company and the whole city do two musical theater productions per year. In hong kong we have about 6 musicals (in various scale) per year.
Hi Katherine, a little correction for some of the titles you mentioned as original German musicals, like Elisabeth, Mozart or Rebecca. Those three as well as Tanz der Vampire (Dance of the vampires) are entirely Austrian originals. All of them celebrated their world premiere in Vienna, Austria and at a later stage into their success transfered to Germany under the Stage Entertainment umbrella. The og company in Vienna is called "Vereinigte Bühnen Wien" short 'VBW" who originated and produced these musicals. You could say these are all german (language) originals, but they're not from Germany originally :)
From my perspective, from the last 20 years, Germany right now focuses heavily on easy entertainment. At least in the big theaters. There are lots of Disney shows... like half of all big houses have them, but the real risk takers are the smaller venues. There's a lot of summer and open air entertainment with tons of Evita, Addams Family and Hair productions every year, but there are also many gems that will never grace a stage with over 1500 seats. Unfortunately we will never see a Hadestown or Great Comet in a big theater in Germany. On the other hand... there's still Starlight Express, running since the eighties, with continuing success, which is really one of a kind in the whole world I guess 🙂 it's an interesting time right now. I wish there was more original productions though. But that's the stuff Germany transfers over from Austria a lot.
Hello from Tokyo! Thank you for talking about Japan!
Japan is brilliant for streaming and DVD releases!
There are a ton of brilliant original musicals in Japan, including 16 musicals that premiered in 2024 in major productions (not counting things like 2.5D) Almost all of them got DVDs.
Also both of those Korea clips are from Frankenstein!!! There are two Japanese DVDs of Frankenstein from 2020, and it might get filmed again this year. It was filmed in Korea in 2024, no release announced yet. Also, the Korean recording of Elisabeth from 2022 sounds amazing but it’s only had domestic cinema releases so far.
I love this! I'm teaching a course (ironically also titled Beyond Broadway) at the University of Pittsburgh on musical theatre markets on the global stage next spring. I definitely will be showing this video as part of an introductory lesson.
Oh, nice! It’s fascinating to know that a course like that exists! I’m so curious about what you say about Japan and Korea. Who is the course for, students who want to be actors, or producers, or non-theatre-majors…?
It was me that made the comment about ON Broadway, and IN the West End. It's one of those pet peeves, like saying soundtrack not cast recording! Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame had it's world premier in Berlin years before it came back to the USA. Der Gloeckner Von Notre Dame' was such a technology advanced show and very different from what the show is now. It's worth checking out here on YT. With regards to Hercules, it's opening at the oldest theatre in London - Theatre Royal Drury Lane in Summer 2025.
Korea also streams a lot of theater.
in portugal, even though we never get lots of large scale musicals (the only ones we get are from international tours and they aren't even performed in theaters but rather arenas). the ones we do get are either all commercial and don't have a big budget or they're HEAVILY promoted and then have a proshot that you can watch on antenna tv (like pbs' great performances) and will then go to that tv's streaming service. the theaters also usually have two or more productions running.
however, some of the larger productions, usually by filipe la feria (portugal's biggest musical theater director, his original productions sell out frequently) do copy lots of broadway shows. for example, they've stolen a song from seussical, a song and choreo from holiday inn and, recently, most branding, set and costumes from various beauty and the beast productions from disney, not to talk about the ai images used on show.
This was such an interesting concept. It's curious to discover what audience preferences is in different countires/markets. I got into this as a topic when I heard about the Dance of the Vampires which is HUGE in Germany but hasnt really taken off elsewhere. A friend of mine is following the Bowie Musical Lazarus and chronicling all the different and differences in productions around the globe. It's a big rabbithole.
Tanz der Vampire is back in Japan this year!
I was so excited when I saw this video and it does not disappoint. I would recommend French theater as a research topic, they do streaming a lot better, and there are literally proshots of almost every French musical. Some of my favorites are Mozart L'Opéra Rock, Roméo et Juliette, and Starmania, Mozart L'Opéra Rock has been attempted to be translated into English and transfer to Broadway, Starmania has had an actual album, a fully translated version of the show, and plans to transfer to the West End but never did, and Roméo et Juliette actually ran on the West End for about 4 months. Another country whose musical theater industry I find interesting and I suggest is China, which is also progressing very fast like South Korea's(though maybe arguably not as fast as South Korea's since there is less social media traction), China has had translated productions of Broadway and West End musicals, their own original musicals, and tours of mainly German and French musicals.
French musicals are great! A lot of them come to Japan, too. Takarazuka does a lot of them, like 1789, Le Rouge et le Noir, and Mozart L’Opera Rock. The Korean cast of Legende du Roi Arthur sounds amazing as well.
I believe Doctor Zhivago premiere in Australia. That's the only one I can think of.
As someone from the UK. Back in the early 2000s we always got clones of Broadway shows like wicked and hairspray and because the Broadway bootlegs existed there was a lot of comparison and Broadway was better. Now, not so much.
I love this type of content! I would highly recommend checking out the Toronto Theatre scene. I’m from Toronto. It's similar to Australia in size, but there’s a wide variety of theatrical material. The largest for-profit theatre is Mirvish. I recommend that the significant non-profit theatres check out Canadian Stage, Soulpepper, Tarragon, Buddies in Bad Times (one of the largest Queer theatres in the world) and Crow’s Theatre. Regionally, there is the Stratford Festival and the Shaw Festival. Also, there is Fringe. Kim’s Convenience and The Drowsy Chaperone began at the Fringe. The most significant musical theatre company is The Musical Stage Company, which creates and develops a lot of new musical theatre.
the marie antoinette poster being in korean 😭😭
It did premiere in Japan, but Kunze and Levay’s Beethoven Secret, and a few similar things by Wildhorn (The Man who Laughs, Mata Hari) were done in Korea.
Speaking of Kunze and Levay’s shows in Japan, I wonder if people will be more interested in Lady Bess since the two leads are doing voices in the new Rose of Versailles movie?
Hi from Sydney!
Usually for Australia shows don't come here for a while I've noticed if it's from the west end we might get it quicker but from broadway it takes like 5 years at least. We got Dear Evan Hansen in October, hadestown comes in February, we got Hamilton in 2021 so that was a bit of a wait. We get Back To The Future & Beetlejuice next year so some musicals coming over quicker.
Most of the time the show starts in either Sydney or Melbourne idk if we have a "theatre scene" but tbh I feel like Melbourne has more venues than Sydney. After going to those 2 cities it usually does a tour but sometime other states miss out depending on venue availability.
I would love to hear about other theater epicenters around the US. I’m in Chicago and as you know, we get a ton of tryouts and concerts from Broadway theater folk. Also, can’t forget Broadway Rave!
Thank you for the video! I would suggest discussing about musical theater in Brazil and Canada. Exciting stuff happening in both countries. This is just a hobbit for me, but happy to talk more about both if needed.
Lot's of theatres in Scotland Playhouse in Edinburgh is my favourite.
I dobut we will ever get government subsidized theater. We're too capitalistic.
Very interesting. Appreciate the research you put into this.
A friend of mine saw Hamilton in Germany. They translated it.