Pacific Overtures

"In both its style and subject matter, Pacific Overtures is unique in the history of the American musical theater. It tells the story of Commodore Matthew Perry's 1853 expedition to Japan, and describes the upheaval which resulted when America's gunboat diplomacy forced the Japanese to forsake their self-imposed policy of national isolation. It is a play concerned with 'progress,' and both explicitly and implicitly it raises universal questions about tradition, change, and the cost of modernization. The style of Pacific Overtures reflects and reinforces its thematic concerns in an unprecedented way. A musical play in the great tradition of American musicals, Overtures nonetheless incorporates the dramatic techniques of the Japanese kabuki theater. Eastern devices are freely adapted and fused with western stage techniques to produce a theatrical experience both as familiar and exotic as a stroll down Tokyo's eastern/western Ginza. Pacific Overtures is a musical unlike any other. It demands to be seen--and read."--Dust jacket.