Bonny Loo

Billed as 'a new musical', the world premiere of Prince of Broadway at Tokyu Theatre Orb in Tokyo salutes legendary Broadway producer/director, Harold Prince. Co-directed by Prince himself and Susan Stroman (who also choreographs), the evening celebrates an illustrious career spanning over six decades from the 1950s up to the present day, during which time Hal Prince has produced and/or directed more than 30 Broadway shows, winning a record 21 Tony Awards along the way.

Before iTunes and Spotify came along, I used to collect every original cast CD of any Broadway or West End musical that I could lay my hands on, including foreign language cast recordings. By far, my largest collection of non-English cast CDs consists of Japanese cast recordings, many of which were released by Gekidan Shiki (Shiki Theatre Company). Over the last five decades, Shiki has mounted Japanese-language productions of Applause (1972), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), West Side Story (1974), A Chorus Line (1979), Evita (1982), Cats (1983), The Phantom of the Opera (1988), Crazy For You (1993), Beauty and the Beast (1995), The Lion King (1998), Aspects of Love (1999), Mamma Mia! (2002), Aida (2003), The Little Mermaid (2013), The Sound of Music (2013), Wicked (2013) and Aladdin (2015).

Various exciting shows have been lined up this summer to provide unique theatrical experiences to audiences in Hong Kong and Macao, including Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Ghost The Musical, Legally Blonde The Musical, [title of show], The Naked Magicians, La Soiree and Singin' in the Rain.

The ability to spell is the unlikely subject of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a 2005 Broadway musical by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin now playing to hysterical audiences at the 150-seat Brisbane Arts Theatre.