My Neighbour Totoro - Barbican / Coliseum / Gillian Lynne

Remember the discussion earlier in the thread of this not selling well? Fun times!

It was a mistake to comment too quickly. But I am a fighter not a quitter and I will not be resigning. 

Indeed. It broke Barbican first day sales records, but I knew as soon as I heard the announcement that this would sell out. I’m so glad they’ve got a smash hit on their hands, commercially and critically.

The question is, what happens going forward?

*facepalm*

I can't see this transferring elsewhere. It was built to fully utilise the Barbican stage. Like Anything Goes however, I can see this making a return to the Barbican. They'd be stupid not to!

Hopefully a second run could see better success than Anything Goes.

If they did want a West End transfer, the Dominion doesn’t have a show announced after Dirty Dancing and could probably house it quite easily - And I could totally see this riding on its current run and having a very successful run. Very rare these days to get a sell out hit which appeals to so many demographics.

Here is the official RSC shop, with some (not all) of the merchandise available from the theatre; shop.rsc.org.uk/collections/my-neighbour-totoro

Not showing on there anymore are t-shirts (two designs), a hoodie, an umbrella (£50!!), and a few other bits and pieces. My guess is stocks are running low and they are now reserved for purchases in person at the Barbican. All the items in the RSC shop are officially licensed Studio Ghibli merchandise, not specific to the show. It is worth mentioning Ghibli have sold over $1 BILLION in merchandise (apparel, posters, plushes) sales alone for this one film, not including VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray sales..

The only show specific merchandise are a key ring, a mug and possibly a folio size show poster. These are priced on par with West End merch prices.

Everything listed above (apart from the show specific stuff) are available online for anything from 15-50% cheaper, depending on the item and where you order from. Remember to factor in postage to your price.

And do be careful if buying from Amazon Prime Marketplace/eBay as there is a huge amount of convincing counterfeit products on there. If you want to guarantee an official product, buy from somewhere reputable.

There is more merch on store.playbill.co.uk/totoro

Thank you both I had only picked up a magnet previously. Passed on the umbrella, but didn't realise it was £50!

On the subject of counterfeits, anyone remember the market at Chinatown / just off Charing Cross Rd? It was closed for a while and now converted into bubble tea / dessert shops. I still have a Totoro storage basket I picked up from there when I was a kid - almost guaranteed counterfeit but I still have this proudly displayed. It's a little misshapen from when my niece sat inside it (flowers from Bridge Theatre): imgur.com/WOFZt4d

I wish I could've taken my niece to see the show and really hope there's life after the Barbican run. There's certainly demand for it (and for Spirited Away to transfer). I'm imagining nice sunny weather and the trees at Regent's Park to compliment the piece, but chances are the rain and a fluffy Totoro aren't going to mix well, let alone the staging.

This is a charming play with 5 star production standards. Very lucky to have got a good front row seat today, which gives a perfect view of a show which is both very large and very small.

You wouldn’t want to be far back for this one.

With that said, the front row is great, but the Asian ladies at either side of me were really straining to see at times. At 5’8”, I was mostly fine.

The audience was mostly adult but with enough children in to wonder how they would cope with a near 3 hour show. Good news is they were enthralled. Thanks to the mother sat behind me who stopped her son revealing all the second half plot during the interval (I’ve never seen the movie).

This has sold so well (and at high prices) that it’s bound to have a future life. I can’t say I have any immediate desire to rush back for a second viewing though. I don’t think the magic would be there a second time. But I can see why this is a movie with a cult following and I’m sure it will attract a repeat audience (given the chance).

This was made to tour the world , so it’s highly likely they will take it to New York, Toronto or Australia next.

Given the number of other co producers, this isn't going to be a huge cash generator for the RSC. Certainly nothing on the scale of cash they have raised through Matilda and Les Mis.

They really need to find another project with that sort of mass appeal.