Moyoco Anno’s Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen is making a pretty rare jump: from Japanese manga to an English-language stage musical in New York.
The American musical adaptation is set to open to the public Off-Broadway this fall at The Night Egg, a new theatre located in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood. That name is not random either — it comes from the French brothel featured in the manga itself.
According to Anno’s website, the production is being described as the first English-language original musical based on a Japanese manga. There is a bit of nuance here, since Death Note previously received a stage musical from a Japanese/American creative team with Broadway veterans, but that production first opened in Japan after being translated back into Japanese.
For anime and manga fans in Malaysia and SEA, this is interesting because it shows how far manga adaptations are moving beyond the usual anime, live-action film, or Netflix-style series route. Stage musicals are still a niche format for most of us here, but Japan’s 2.5D theatre scene has been growing for years, and now more of that energy is clearly crossing into Western theatre spaces.
The creative team is also stacked. Rob Ashford, the Tony Award-winning director and choreographer known for works like Thoroughly Modern Millie, Curtains, and Frozen, is directing and choreographing the musical.
Music and lyrics are being handled by Duncan Sheik, best known to mainstream audiences for “Barely Breathing” and to theatre fans for Spring Awakening. Leah Nanako Winkler is writing the script, while Or Matias is in charge of music direction, conducting, and vocal/incidental music arrangements.
On the production side, Antonio Marion is executive producer, with Kenny Kurokawa of Team Rayman producing. The associate producers include Antonio Marion, Nobu Matsukura, Shin Yamada, Yu Anne Ando, Mika Furuya, Ryohei Otani, and Yumi. The project now lists Celina Lam from WJP as general manager, though the original 2020 announcement had named Devin Keudell of Bespoke Theatricals in that role and Izumi Takeuchi as producer.
The musical has already had some industry movement before this public opening. It received a private, invitation-only presentation for industry guests at Gibney Dance in New York in February 2025. The project was also previously planned with a “worldwide release” in mind, though no SEA dates or Asia tour details have been announced for now.
The original Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen manga launched in Shodensha’s Feel Young magazine in 2013 and ended in March 2018. Shodensha released the series in two volumes. Crunchyroll has also released the first 16 chapters in English, which is probably the easiest entry point for international readers who want to sample the story before the musical lands.
The manga also has serious critical backing. It was honoured by Japan’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs at the 23rd Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 2020.
Anno is no stranger to international manga readers either. Viz Media published her Flowers and Bees, Del Rey published Sugar Sugar Rune, and Vertical published Sakuran. She also designed characters for the live-action Cutie Honey film directed by her husband, Hideaki Anno.
There is more Anno-related momentum happening too. Sugar Sugar Rune received a 20th anniversary anime short titled Sugar Sugar Rune Les deux sorcières in July 2025, with a separate full anime project using similar CG animation also planned.
For Malaysian fans, the big thing to watch now is whether this musical eventually gets a cast recording, streaming release, or international staging. Because let’s be real — flying to New York for one show is not exactly casual weekend plans. But if this works, it could open more doors for manga with mature, stylish, non-shonen stories to reach global audiences in new formats.
Source: Anime News Network