BBA 2024 Winner Profile: UK–Japan Partnership – PW Productions and Toho Co., Ltd.

PW Productions and Toho Co., Ltd. have been awarded the 2024 British Business Award (BBA) for UK–Japan Partnership for co-producing the European premiere of the Studio Ghibli animated fantasy film Spirited Away. The stage production, held at the London Coliseum from April to August this year, was the largest in recent history with a Japanese cast and in the Japanese language outside of Japan.

Judges from the UK–Japan ecosystem recognised the London-based production company and Tokyo-based entertainment company for their joint endeavour, which was a huge success both critically and commercially, noting their “demonstrable contributions to the enhancement of the UK–Japan economic relationship over the past 12 months.”

Iain Gillie, CEO of PW Productions, described the win as “very complimentary” and expressed the team’s gratitude. “Theatre is very rarely recognised as a business, but it’s a serious business, and it’s wonderful to be recognised as that,” he said.

Haruka Ogi, producer at Toho Co., Ltd., said winning the BBA is not only an honour and something to be proud of, but also “encouragement of what we have done and what we can do in the future.”

Long road to the limelight

Created by animator and director Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away was first re-imagined for the stage in Japan by Toho Theatrical Department and John Caird, the Olivier and Tony Award-winning director of Les Misérables.

Transforming the film into a production was a dream come true for Ogi, who kickstarted the process by navigating meetings with Caird, Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki to secure the plan. “Spirited Away is one of the most famous legendary movies, not just for Japanese audiences but for the world. It was my ambition to make it into a theatre piece,” she said. 

The show opened in Tokyo in March 2022 to an extremely warm welcome, resulting in a nationwide tour. Then, Peter Wilson MBE (1951–2023), PW Productions’ founder and old friend of Caird, showed his interest in bringing the production to the UK. After seeing the show in Japan, Wilson and Gillie began work to establish the partnership with Toho.

“It was almost two years from our first meeting with Haruka to opening the show in London, and we couldn’t have done it in less time. It was such a big project and took so much planning,” said Gillie. “We’re so proud of getting the award because we had to build trust. It’s unusual in any business to do that in such a short period, but we did it.”

Ogi agreed that joining forces to launch a European premiere had its challenges, not least of which was establishing the relationship, travelling between London and Tokyo for meetings and the uncertainty around how the performance would be received.

“We had no idea because it was the first time in Japanese theatre history that this size of project was delivered, but thankfully every show got a standing ovation and full applause,” she said.

Indeed, the show was a huge hit, generating four- and five-star reviews in the UK press and breaking records. Some 305,000 tickets were sold, equating to 99.2% of all available tickets over the 17 weeks the production was held, a feat that Gillie calls “unprecedented in a theatre like the Coliseum, which is the biggest theatre in the West End.” A pre-sale website, where people could sign-up to gain two days to buy tickets before they went on sale to the public, also generated 140,000 registrants, while the first day of general sale saw 100,000 tickets sold.

Fostering cultural exchange

A masterpiece of storytelling and visual arts, Spirited Away tells the enchanting tale of Chihiro who, while traveling to a new home with her family, stumbles into a world of spirits ruled over by the sorceress Yubaba. When her parents are turned into pigs and she is put to work in a magical bathhouse, Chihiro must use her wits to survive, find a way to free her parents and return to the normal world.

In adapting this story for theatres in Japan, Toho was determined to remain true to the film, and Spirited Away’s theatre debut in London was just as authentic; the only change for a British audience was to add English language captions. The original Japanese cast performed and the story was brought to life with a live orchestra playing the film score by Joe Hisaishi arranged by Brad Haak (Mary Poppins). The set was designed by Jon Bausor (Bat Out of Hell), with puppets designed by Toby Olié (Pinocchio), choreography by Shigehiro Ide and costumes by Sachiko Nakahara.

“We believed that sticking to the original movie for the Japanese production and then the original play for the UK production would be the most authentic and high-quality option,” said Ogi. Gillie agreed, adding that it was clear from the outset that only a production in Japanese would satisfy the fans of Studio Ghibli and Spirited Away.

In addition to bringing a piece of Japanese culture to British audiences, the collaboration provided an international experience to the 100 actors, technicians and management who came to London over the five-month period of production.

“It could have been a challenging time for a lot of these artists, but we succeeded in giving them a really nice cultural experience,” said Gillie, adding that they received support with accommodation, shopping, socialising and day-to-day life. “The majority of them will say they had a great time, which will encourage other artists and technicians, if the opportunity arises, to come to London again or go to another country.”

Ogi agreed that the cross-cultural experience is important, adding that she is inspired to continue fostering the partnership, “not only for the future of Spirited Away, but also for the future of the theatre world in Japan and the West End.”

PW Productions and Toho are currently discussing what they can do next together, in the hope of strengthening and deepening their partnership to deliver future productions.