The multi-platform manga phenomenon has made its way to the stage, with all the supernatural hijinks, J-horror tropes and emotional intensity intact. The Barbican's production of Death Note: The Musical is a killer night out.
A spectacle for fans and newcomers alike
Some of the crowd at Death Note: The Musical take dressing up for the theatre to a whole other level. Coiffured and corseted, bedecked in gauze or festooned with diamanté, it is a sight to behold, with an appreciable element going for full cosplay. This is because the source material has emerged from the fan-cultivating world of Japanese manga, originating in 2003, and which has sold millions of copies in comic book and novel form, jumped to an animated TV series and feature film iterations, and even crossed over to a Hollywood treatment in 2017.
A live musical seems a bit of a sideways step, though; this kind of material doesn't often find itself in theatres, but perhaps the success of the Barbican's staging will see more given the go-ahead. This is actually a second London appearance for Death Note, after a short run at the Palladium and Lyric in 2023.
A smart, metaphysical whodunnit
Shorn of the original's convoluted digressions, and with a dilution of the original manga's play for the teen-boy readership, this emerges as a smart, metaphysical whodunnit – or perhaps, more accurately, howdunnit – with a nice line in emotional intensity cranked up by its power-ballad musical score.
Despite its elaborate plot superstructure, Death Note rests on a fairly simple idea, familiar from J-horror of yore. Someone's name gets written in a spooky notebook and they die. All sorts of random, self-imposed rules materialise to make things difficult, as well as a bunch of supernatural presences/deities who face their own set of pulled-from-nowhere consequences for their actions.
Top-notch cast and staging
The adapters – Frank Wildhorn (music), Jack Murphy (lyrics) and Ivan Menchell (book) – have slimmed things down to focus on three principals: drunk-with-power schoolkid killer Light (Xander Pang), maverick but brilliant detective L (Colin Ryan) and pop princess turned lovelorn slayer Misa (Stephanie Zaharis). Their three-way struggle to alternatively rule like a god and head off the tide of carnage the death note triggers forms the meat of the show, and all three performers attack their roles with grade-A gusto. Telly Leung and Grace Mouat as apple-munching chaos-stirrer Ryuk and goth-bride lookalike Rem, respectively, provide top-notch support as the presiding deities.
Fortunately, the whole thing starts strong, with a floodlit opening scene that combines brilliantly athletic dance moves (by a supporting company that is excellent throughout) and a schoolroom debate about the ethics of justice, and just keeps going from there – with neat forced-perspective sets, flashy back projections and amusing sliding stage elements. Death Note purists might not be completely on board with the alterations, but I would challenge anyone not to have a good time with this. At Barbican, London, until 12 September.
