Shock (musical)

Template:Nihongo is a series of musical works starring Koichi Domoto (from the duo KinKi Kids), who is also in charge of the planning, music, story, and production under Johnny Kitagawa’s direction. Shock was originally based on the musical 1991 Playzone '91 Shock (1991, starring Shonentai), and premiered at the Imperial Theater in November 2000 under the title Millenium Shock. It has been performed at the same theater every year since, with different modifications in the title, cast, plot and programs each year. In 2005, it was revamped entirely as Endless Shock, which has been its title until now. Shock's annual performances are greatly anticipated, and it is dubbed “the stage of which tickets are the hardest to get in Japan” by the media.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Shock reached its 400th performance in 2006, and its 499th performance in 2007, attracting more than 80,000 audiences up until that point. Shock is the solo-starring stage play to achieve this feat in the shortest time at the Imperial Theater.

April 2008, Endless Shock received the Grand Prize Award at the 33rd "Kikuta Kazuo Theater Award" for high achievements in stage performance.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This was the first time a musical starring an idol from Johnny & Associates won such an honor.

March 2009, Koichi Domoto set a new record for the highest number of solo-starring musical performances at the Imperial Theater.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

March 21, 2013, 12 years 5 months after its premiere, Shock reached its 1,000th performance, became the solo-starring musical play to achieve this in the shortest time in Japan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In April 2020, Koichi Domoto alone was awarded the Grand Prize of the 45th Kazuo Kikuta Theater Awards for his achievement for leading Shock series for twenty years, becoming the youngest single winner of this award.<ref name="natalie20210503">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Until 2021, Shock has been performed for more than 1,800 times, becoming the 2nd most-performed musical with the same leading actor in Japan, after Mitsuko Mori's Hourouki (performed 2,017 times).<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Overview

Shock is about the conflicts happening in a theater company, interspersed with the shows performed by said company - a "play within a play". The series focuses on the theme "Show must go on" with Koichi, the company's leader as the protagonist. Through his collaborations, conflicts, and reconciliations with the company members, the musical portrays a "stage of life" where even life is sacrificed for the ultimate performances. Koichi Domoto said “I'm completely different from Koichi”, but they both share an unyielding, uncompromising attitude to the stage, even when facing injuries or accidents. Koichi Domoto himself also stated that he was able to cultivate such mindset thanks to continuously performing this play.

The play has a diverse combination of famous musical numbers and original songs in various style, from New York Broadway to traditional Japanese. Aside from difficult choreographies, Shock also includes numerous flashy, dangerous acts such as flying, falling down an 8-metre high staircase... , and is said to be able to “surprise the audience every 5 minutes”.

Under Johnny Kitagawa's production, Shock was originally intended to be a play that can impress the audiences even if they don't understand the speech. However, as an actor, Koichi Domoto wanted the stage to convey deeper meaning, and asked Kitagawa to make thorough changes, including the plot. With Kitagawa's approval (“Just do what you like.”), Koichi started taking a substantial role in screenwriting, music composing and producing since 2005.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

After Endless Shock 2006, there were plans to end the Shock series and start a new play in 2007, also with Koichi Domoto as the producer and lead actor. However, due to high demand (demand for tickets was 14 times higher than supply), it was decided that the play would be performed again in 2007. Shock continues to be performed every year since, and is said to be “the stage of which tickets are the hardest to get in Japan”.

During the noon performance on January 23, 2008, due to electricity failure, the play was cancelled and moved to another date (February 17, 2008) for the first time. Koichi Domoto deeply regretted this, and wrote on the official site: "It is truly regrettable that the performance couldn't continue like the theme 'Show must go on'. To the audiences who was looking forward to the stage, I sincerely apologize." After the cancellation decision was made, all the cast came out to see the audiences off to the last one. The night performance that day still went on as scheduled.

March 11, 2011, the Great Tohoku earthquake occurred during the noon performance's intermission. The audiences and some of the cast were evacuated to Koukyogaien, and the performance - incidentally, also Shock's 800th performance - was cancelled. Due to aftershocks and planned power outage, performances could not resume as planned, and the rest of the performances that year were also cancelled.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Cancellation announcement was made before the performance on the 13th by Koichi Domoto himself. He then shook hand with and saw all the audiences off.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During the noon performance on March 19, 2015, a Template:Convert LED panel used in stage setting collapsed, injured 6 people: trainees Takayoshi Kishi, 2 dancers, 2 acrobat actors, and 1 staff member.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The two performances that day were cancelled, and Koichi Domoto came out in full stage costume to apologize to the audiences for the accident and the cancellation. Performance restarted the next day without the use of LED panel and part of the program changed. There were mixed opinions about restarting performances so soon after such a serious accident, but the decision was made with support from the cast and staff, even the injured ones, to convey the theme of the play: continue to move forward despite unfavorable circumstances.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> May 20, 2015, Toho announced that the accident was caused by an inclination due to partial failure of the stage floor, and that reinforcement work was planned to correct this.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Toho also officially prohibit future use of mobile LED panels on its stage for caution's sake.<ref name=":1" />

On September 17 of the same year, during the Osaka tour, the actress who played the owner role, Bibari Maeda, fell and broke her left shoulder while walking to Umeda Arts Theatre from her hotel. She still acted in two performances on the 17th, but was hospitalized after the night performance and was told to rest for 1.5 month for the break to heal.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Katsuhide Uekusa from Shonentai, who played the owner during 2009 - 2012, stepped in for Maeda from the performance on the 18th until the last one in 2015.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Uekusa received direct appeal from Johnny Kitagawa and Koichi Domoto on the evening of the 17th, arrived in Osaka around noon on the 18th, and only had 4 hours to practice with all the cast.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Nevertheless, the performances went on smoothly as usual.

In April 2020, Koichi alone was awarded the Grand Prize of the 45th Kazuo Kikuta Theater Awards for his achievement for leading Shock series for twenty years, becoming the youngest single winner of this award.<ref name="natalie20210503" />

In 2021, Endless Shock was made into a movie.<ref name="hochi20201202">Template:Cite news</ref>

It was announced that the Shock series starring Koichi would end after the 2024 performance. The reasons given were that the Imperial Theatre will be closed for reconstruction in February 2025, and since Koichi created it around the age of 25 and the age setting was about the same, he thought that 2024, when he would be 45, would be a good time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On April 22, 2024, the play reached 2000 performances<ref name="mynavi20240422">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and on May 9, 2018. It broke the record of 2017 times that Mitsuko Mori had accumulated between 1961 and 2009 with "Hourouki" and also became the single largest single starring role record in a domestic play.<ref name="SPICE20240510">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Milleninum Shock (2000)

Performance period

November 2–26, 2000 (Imperial Theatre) (38 performances)

Story

Koichi, leader of a travelling theatre company, decides to carry on performances despite the injuries of fellow member TSUBASA, and this brings about conflicts with other members of the company. At such a time, the company receives an invitation to perform at Broadway - where Koichi's older brother died 3 years before. Despite opposition from others, Koichi pushes on to Broadway, and meets a mysterious person who claimed to be his deceased brother's friend...

Role	2020	2022	2023	2024
Koichi	Koichi Domoto
Owner	Bibari Maeda
Rival	Tatsuya Ueda	Shori Sato	Shori Sato/Hiromitsu Kitayama (W cast)	Shori Sato
Rika	Ayaka Umeda	Airi Kisaki	Reno Nakamura
others	Template:Cast listing

Shock (musical)

Overview

Milleninum Shock (2000)

Performance period

Story

Cast

Show Geki Shock (2001 - 2002)

Performance period

Story

Cast

Shock is Real Shock (2003)

Performance period

Story

Cast

Shocking Shock (2004)

Performance period

Story

Cast

Endless Shock (2005 - 2024)

Performance period

Story

Cast

Endless Shock 2005

Endless Shock 2006

Endless Shock 2007

Endless Shock 2008

Endless Shock 2009

Endless Shock 2010

Endless Shock 2011

Endless Shock 2012

Endless Shock 2013

Endless Shock 2014

Endless Shock 2015

Endless Shock 2016

Endless Shock 2017

Endless Shock 2018

Endless Shock 2019

Endless Shock 2020

Endless Shock 2022

Endless Shock 2023

Endless Shock 2024

Endless Shock -Eternal- (2020 - 2024)

Performance Period

Story

Cast

"Play within a play"

Musical numbers

Endless Shock

Related products

DVD / BD

CD

References

External links

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