Shogun: Early end after just two months – that’s how bad the Broadway musical about Blackthorne and Mariko was

They fight, they scheme, they rhyme – but can the characters from “Shogun” also sing and dance? Maybe not in the FX series, which is now available in its entirety on Disney+, but definitely on Broadway in 1990.

“Shōgun: The Musical” flopped and was canceled after just 72 performances, i.e. after two months. But how did the idea of ​​turning “Shogun” into a musical come about and what did the New York audience get back then?

Nothing rhymes with Blackthorne

In 1982, “Shogun” author James Clavell attended a ballet performance of “Shinju.” Excited about this modern adaptation of an 18th-century Japanese play, Clavell organized a meeting with the producers. His suggestion: “Shogun”, already a bestseller and a successful mini-series at this point, should be turned into a musical.

The road to the premiere in 1990 was rocky and Clavell largely financed the complex and expensive production ($7 million in total, including $1 million for the costumes alone) himself.

The version of “Shogun: The Musical” that was first staged in Washington DC lasted over four hours and confused even those viewers who actually knew the plot of “Shogun.” As a result, numerous songs were removed from the piece, which had been sung almost continuously up to that point; the focus was now on action and the love between Blackthorne and Lady Mariko.

Although audiences were thrilled by the sheer spectacle of the final Broadway version – Blackthorne’s ship, an earthquake and a battle between horseback samurai in a snowstorm all made it onto the stage – tickets sold poorly. As a last resort attempt, Clavell had this commercial filmed:

But it didn’t help, the end of “Shōgun: The Musical” came quickly and since it was canceled in early 1991, the musical has never been performed again. There is also no recording of the show, although June Angela, the actress who played Lady Mariko, released a solo album over 20 years later that contains several songs from the “Shogun” musical. Here’s an example:

With big scenes and emotional ballads, “Shōgun: The Musical” should be mentioned in the same breath as “Les Misérables” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” but instead the piece disappeared into obscurity. Three months after the cancellation of “Shōgun: The Musical”, a similarly heartbreaking musical about the tragic romance between an American GI and a Vietnamese woman, “Miss Saigon”, opened – and became a hit.

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