While I've been off gallivanting again, there's been a lot of news coming out of the Death Note Musical camp. Fortunately Logan was on the ball, noting it all and giving me the heads up when I returned.
Most of the cast has been revealed!
I'm going to go through them one by one, so we can have a good look, starting with a very familiar face.
Most of the cast has been revealed!
I'm going to go through them one by one, so we can have a good look, starting with a very familiar face.
Soichiro Yagami played by Takeshi Kaga
Death Note fans already know all about Takeshi Kaga. He is the actor who plays Soichiro Yagami in the live action movies! Therefore it feels only natural that he will bring the same hapless parent to life on stage.
But what do we really know about Takeshi Kaga? Well, for a start, his name isn't Takeshi Kaga!
This well-known stage and movie actor was born Shigekatsu Katsuta, in his native Kanazawa, Japan, on October 12th 1950. He was already singing in a local boys choir aged seven, but didn't begin acting until he was an adult.
His talent quickly emerged though. He was snapped up by one of Japan's top theatrical groups Shiki Theatre Company, where he was soon cast in the leading roles of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar and Tony in West Side Story. In short, there's a long history here which assures us that Kaga can sing, act and dance more than adequately for his part in the musical Death Note.
Though leaving Shiki in 1980, Kaga has returned to the stage several times during his long career, often in starring roles. He's played Jean Valjean in Les Misérables twice! Once in 1987, then again in 1995, wherein he represented Japan in a 10th Anniversary performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. That latter show saw seventeen Valjeans from seventeen different countries appear one after the other!
He was Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in a stage adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde. Here he worked with Frank Wildhorn, who is now producing Death Note the Musical.
Kaga has also starred in non-musical theatrical performances, including playing MacBeth in the eponymous Shakespearian play, and Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac.
But what do we really know about Takeshi Kaga? Well, for a start, his name isn't Takeshi Kaga!
This well-known stage and movie actor was born Shigekatsu Katsuta, in his native Kanazawa, Japan, on October 12th 1950. He was already singing in a local boys choir aged seven, but didn't begin acting until he was an adult.
His talent quickly emerged though. He was snapped up by one of Japan's top theatrical groups Shiki Theatre Company, where he was soon cast in the leading roles of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar and Tony in West Side Story. In short, there's a long history here which assures us that Kaga can sing, act and dance more than adequately for his part in the musical Death Note.
Though leaving Shiki in 1980, Kaga has returned to the stage several times during his long career, often in starring roles. He's played Jean Valjean in Les Misérables twice! Once in 1987, then again in 1995, wherein he represented Japan in a 10th Anniversary performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. That latter show saw seventeen Valjeans from seventeen different countries appear one after the other!
He was Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in a stage adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde. Here he worked with Frank Wildhorn, who is now producing Death Note the Musical.
Kaga has also starred in non-musical theatrical performances, including playing MacBeth in the eponymous Shakespearian play, and Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac.
Japan 2000: Takeshi Kaga as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.
However, for the rest of the world (and indeed most of Japan), it wasn't the stage performances which made Takeshi Kaga so famous. That was his appearances in movies and on television.
Let's be honest here. It wasn't all of them. They just kept his name out there and his face familiar. The real biggie was his casting as Chairman Kaga in the internationally syndicated Ryōri no Tetsujin, or Iron Chef, as it was known in the English speaking world, usually with each country's name tagged on the end.
This stylized cooking show pits top chefs against one another in a crazy cook-off, all presided over by Takeshi Kaga as the loud, flamboyant Chairman Kaga. It's all about as far away as the staid, sensible Soichiro Yagami as it's possible to get. Nevertheless those two are Kaga's biggest roles in most minds around the globe.
Here he is, as Chairman Kaga, getting very, very excited about food ingredients for each cook off:
Let's be honest here. It wasn't all of them. They just kept his name out there and his face familiar. The real biggie was his casting as Chairman Kaga in the internationally syndicated Ryōri no Tetsujin, or Iron Chef, as it was known in the English speaking world, usually with each country's name tagged on the end.
This stylized cooking show pits top chefs against one another in a crazy cook-off, all presided over by Takeshi Kaga as the loud, flamboyant Chairman Kaga. It's all about as far away as the staid, sensible Soichiro Yagami as it's possible to get. Nevertheless those two are Kaga's biggest roles in most minds around the globe.
Here he is, as Chairman Kaga, getting very, very excited about food ingredients for each cook off:
For gamers and anime fans (that's us), Takeshi Kaga is best known for his voice acting. The former group heard him as Golbez in the Nintendo DS version of Final Fantasy IV, and Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PSP.
He was the voice of Teridax in all the Lego related media for their Bionicle line (which is credited with saving the Lego Group from complete collapse and bankruptcy in the 1990s).
As an anime voice actor, Kaga appeared as Jirarudan in the second Pokémon movie Revelation Lugia - also singing the theme song Ware Wa Collector; Dr. Kiriko in Black Jack: The Two Doctors of Darkness; and Tokimune Shochikubai in Yukan Club, amongst many, many more roles.
But for Death Note fans, Takeshi Kaga's big moment for international fame came in 2006, when he was cast as Light's dad Soichiro Yagami in the first two Death Note live action movies.
Here he is during that tense final scene from Death Note 2: The Last Name (obviously full of spoilers for anyone who hasn't encountered Death Note before, which I'm assuming isn't any of us), as the stunned father of Kira unmasked:
He was the voice of Teridax in all the Lego related media for their Bionicle line (which is credited with saving the Lego Group from complete collapse and bankruptcy in the 1990s).
As an anime voice actor, Kaga appeared as Jirarudan in the second Pokémon movie Revelation Lugia - also singing the theme song Ware Wa Collector; Dr. Kiriko in Black Jack: The Two Doctors of Darkness; and Tokimune Shochikubai in Yukan Club, amongst many, many more roles.
But for Death Note fans, Takeshi Kaga's big moment for international fame came in 2006, when he was cast as Light's dad Soichiro Yagami in the first two Death Note live action movies.
Here he is during that tense final scene from Death Note 2: The Last Name (obviously full of spoilers for anyone who hasn't encountered Death Note before, which I'm assuming isn't any of us), as the stunned father of Kira unmasked:
For many fans of Death Note, those performances in Death Note (2006) and Death Note: The Last Name (2007) have already ensured that Takeshi Kaga wears the face of a live action Soichiro Yagami.
Therefore it's no great leap to imagine him reprising the same role in the Death Note stage show. In fact, it feels only fitting. Do the rest of you agree? Over to you.
Therefore it's no great leap to imagine him reprising the same role in the Death Note stage show. In fact, it feels only fitting. Do the rest of you agree? Over to you.
