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This research examines how the performance of Pacific Overtures reflects changing views of Japan and authenticity in cultural exchange between Japan and America.

April 3, 2026Open Access

Pacific Overtures : Performing Japan

Key Points

This research examines how the performance of Pacific Overtures reflects changing views of Japan and authenticity in cultural exchange between Japan and America.
Analysis of performances by Harold Prince and Miyamoto Amon
Examination of historical context surrounding the production of Pacific Overtures
Comparison of Japanese and American theatrical styles and influences
Pacific Overtures presented Japan through diverse cultural lenses, initially through Kabuki and later Noh influences.
Miyamoto Amon's productions emphasized the significance of authenticity in Japanese theater, blending Broadway styles with traditional elements.
The adaptation of Pacific Overtures showcased evolving perceptions of Japan within international performance contexts.

Abstract

Perry to Japan in 1853 with four gunboats (Zadan 210).But, as we shall see, in performance, the idea of a Japanese point of view was quickly transformed into a view of Japan, fi rst in the Kabuki atmosphere created by Harold Prince in America and then in the more Noh-fl avored production of Miyamoto Amon in Japan.The mutual visits and mutual scrutiny between Japan and America continue in performance, all in search of some sort of authenticity.That is, what was originally conceived of as a corrective view of America in an age of historical revisionism actually posits or assumes the existence of an authentic Japan.For example, in order to prepare for the original production of Pacifi c Overtures, Sondheim and Prince visited Japan for a few weeks (!) in order to fi nd out about the country, its theater, and its music.Later, a videotaped version of their production came to Japan, where it was broadcast on NHK and seen by a young Japanese named Miyamoto Amon, who fell in love, not with its depiction of Japan, but with Broadwayone of his books is entitled something like "A Deep Kiss for Broadway Musicals"and of course he repeatedly visited Broadway to fi nd out about the real thing (Miyamoto).After producing a number of Broadway-style shows in Japan, he undertook the production of an actual, if not typical, Broadway show, Pacifi c Overtures, in Japanese, in Tokyo with Japanese actors (2001).Then this production visited New York, Washington, and London, still performed in Japanese by Japanese actors (2001/2), and then, he revisited New York with a new production of Pacifi cOvertures with a basically Asian-American cast, and he was welcomed as the fi rst Japanese director of a Broadway musical on Broadway (2005), in a curious sense, performing the role of the Japanese visitor imagined by Sondheim, Weidman, and Prince as the premise for their musical drama.Then Miyamoto took the play back further into its roots, in a sense, with a Japanese production in Kanagawa, the scene of key events in the musical, including the meeting between Commodore Perry and representatives of the Shogunate (2013).From its inception, then, Pacifi c Overtures has posed a number of historical, cultural, and aesthetic challenges for performance in changing contexts of both time and place.In A Theory of Adaptation, Linda Hutcheon notes: "An adaptation, like the work it adapts, is always framed in a contexta time and a place, a society and a culture; it does not exist in a vacuum" (142).Let us take a look

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