#joaquin pedro valdes

[deathnote-dramanmusical]

[DEATH NOTE THE MUSICAL UK]

Cs. Whatsonstage

[quietbreeze97]

I've waited until today to write my thoughts on Death Note: The Musical because I've been so exhausted from being in London and generally just collecting my thoughts on the show (had a good post-show drink with my friend in the pub to talk about it last night).

But now I have a free moment to go on Tumblr and splurge, I have to summarise by saying: WOW. WHAT. A. SHOW!!!!

I had such a blast watching it; I think I was grinning pretty much throughout the whole thing. Every song is brilliant (I've been listening to them on repeat all of today), the actors are mega talented with amazing voices, and it's a really INTERESTING (wink!) adaptation of the anime I love so much.

It wasn't without its flaws, that's for sure. My main gripe was perhaps the ending, as it felt a little rushed and out of character for L, but given that one musical would never be able to cover the full story of the anime or manga, they did a great job considering what they had to work with, and it was always going to be a condensed version of the story we know.

My main highlights:

Rem was an unexpected delight! She looked stunning, resembling a white angel next to Ryuk's pure blackness, and the actress' voice was GORGEOUS.

Ryuk, of course. Adam Pascal nailed this role, both the comedic and dark elements of his character, and like Rem, he LOOKED perfect.

John Dean-Wilson was an AMAZING L, just as I expected. His interpretation was slightly more unhinged than anime/manga L, and I honestly loved that. His mannerisms were on point and every song of his was memorable.

My favourite song and scene in the whole musical was definitely 'Playing His Game' which was sung DURING L AND LIGHT'S TENNIS MATCH. That entire number gave me chills and summed up their dynamic perfectly. I'll be playing this song over and over again for weeks.

But yeah, as you can tell, I LOVED THIS MUSICAL, and really hope I get an opportunity to see it again at some point. <3

[beautifulsnake2162020]

More Lawlight food from Joaquin and Dean

Original post

I now want to read/write fanfiction of their L and Light

[kyrilu]

I am the mighty hurricane. (x)

Introducing Joaquin Pedro Valdes as Yagami Light in Death Note The Musical at the London Palladium on August 21-22, 2023.

[normalaboutdntm]

Playbill Presents: Death Note: The Musical Panel at NYCC2023

As described on the NYCC site:

"Following acclaimed productions in Japan and Korea and after two star-studded sold-out concert engagements in London, DEATH NOTE: The Musical is coming to New York Comic Con. Playbill will present a panel about the show featuring stars from the recent London concert (cast to be announced) and will offer a sneak peek into the developing production. "Based on the best-selling Japanese manga series (60 million copies worldwide) of the same name by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata / Shueisha, this groundbreaking musical (Winner Best Musical, Korea Musical Awards) has a score by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, 4 years on Broadway, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Bonnie & Clyde) with lyrics by Jack Murphy, book by Ivan Menchell, and orchestrations and arrangements by Jason Howland."

And on Playbill.com:

"October 14's programming kicks off with a Death Note: The Musical panel at 10:30 AM. Set to appear are cast members Adam Pascal, Joaquin Pedro Valdes, and Dean John-Wilson; producers Yuzo Kajiyama and Jamie Chapman Dixon; and book writer Ivan Menchell, with producer Haley Swindal hosting."

For context, this was the earliest panel slot on the third day of a four-day con. Not quite prime territory (especially with the listening party as the last slot of the same day) but they still secured a really good turnout with a lot of cosplayers. Need I remind everyone, the manga is twenty years old, and the anime isn't much younger. So it's really a sign of DN's staying power and the love that people have for this show that congoers showed up in droves to check out this preview.

Unfortunately nothing of consequence was announced at this panel or at the listening party. I was hoping we'd get confirmation of the West End run or even a Broadway concert performance, but no such luck. I was also looking forward to the audience Q&A but tbh all the information we received was so fascinating that I'm glad Haley let the panelists talk instead of trying to keep time for that.

[ID: Adam Pascal, Joaquin Pedro Valdes, Dean John Wilson, Jamie Chapman Dizon, Ivan Menchell, a translator, and Yuzo Kajiyama sitting on stage at NYCC while Haley Swindal stands at a podium.]

After thanking sponsors and bringing everyone on stage, Haley opened by asking each guest a question, starting with Yuzo, the producer of the original Japanese production.

[everything here not in quotation marks is paraphrased]

Haley: Yuzo, what about Death Note inspired you to turn it into a musical, and what were the steps you took to get there?

Yuzo's translator: When he started at Horipro in 2006, at that time all the musicals were imported. He felt the need to produce original musical shows from within Japan. And that was when he had his eyes on Death Note. Horipro already had a relationship with Shueisha, the rightsholders, from the DN movie.

He had two things he felt were important in making this:

The content had to be something that was internationally popular.

Light Yagami’s actor would always get recognized when he went abroad.

It needed to have some kind of extraordinary element to fit with the spontaneous singing.

The concept of the comic, a person who has their name written and dies and the presence of the shinigami, he felt was a perfect fit for the musical.

He also knew that since Shonen Jump, the magazine Death Note originally appeared in, is sold for 2 dollars, the show therefore needs to be a low price.

So that’s when he went to Shueisha. He remembers the first words that they said were “Death Note is gonna be a musical show?" At that time there was only one manga-adaptation musical: The Prince of Tennis. He convinced the people at Shueisha that this would be a first-class show.

Yuzo knew the most important part of the production was the music. At the time Horipro was involved with the Japanese production of Jeykll & Hyde, which also had themes of justice. Yuzo approached Frank Wildhorn about DNtM, but Wildhorn turned it down because "it had to have a love story element, which he felt was the most important aspect" of a musical. Yuzo was impressed by this.

Wildhorn went back to the US and spoke to his son who was a big fan of Death Note, and his son told him he needed to take the job. [Everyone cheered.]

(continuing in reblogs)

[ruindunburnit]

The best part of the whole Death Note musical is the fact that the whole crew are Death Note nerds.

[deathnoteuk]

Death Note The Musical has announced its main concert cast, with further cast to be announced at a later date.

Frances Mayli McCann as Misa

Dean John-Wilson as L

Joaquin Pedro Valdes as Light

The show will be performed at the London Palladium on August 21 and August 22. Tickets go on sale starting today, June 2. 

[numbuh424]

did more Death Note Musical London fanart of Dean John Wilson and Joaquin Pedro Valdes 🍎📓 insanely stoked for the cast recording, you have no idea 🕴️

[meandmypagancrew]

Man, Joaquin Pedro Valdes looks different than I remember.

[spaceasianmillennial]

Joaquin Pedro Valdes singing "Hurricane" from THE DEATH NOTE MUSICAL

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Joaquin Pedro Valdes (@joaquin.pedro.valdes)

[centrestagereviews]

Interview: Joaquin Pedro Valdes - Then, Now & Next

[deathnote-dramanmusical]

Death Note the musical UK

[mapsareforbraindeads]

I AM GOD. I AM LITERALLY GOD. I HAVE MASTERED EVERY DNTM HARMONY TO DATE I AM LITERALLY GOD. KNEEL BEFORE ME. MY AFAB TENOR ASS FINALLY FOUND A MUSICAL I CAN FUCKING SING 💪💪💪

[beautifulsnake2162020]

I don't know how aware Dean John-Wilson and Joaquin Pedro Valdes are about the Lawlight ship, but thank you for feeding us Lawlight food.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dean John-Wilson | VCA Mentor (@deanjohnwilson)

[sassysnowglobe]

Audio gift: Death Note the Musical at the London Palladium - 22 August 2023 matinee.

Cast: Joaquin Pedro Valdes (Light), Dean John-Wilson (L), Frances Mayli McCann (Misa), Adam Pascal (Ryuk), Aimee Atkinson (Rem), Rachel Clare Chan (Sayu), Christian Ray Marbella (Soichiro)

[normalaboutdntm]

Death Note the Musical @ NYCC2023: Album Listening Party

As described by Playbill: "A late-night listening party of the recently announced studio concept album will follow at 9 PM, with Valdes and John-Wilson joining along with host Louis Hobson and special guest Ashley Loren (Moulin Rouge! The Musical)."

I want to emphasize that the listening party happened almost 12 hours after the morning DNTM panel and on Day 3 of the con. People were exhausted, but so many people still made it a point to come check out the new album for a show that has never been performed in the US. I got there 40 minutes before the start time and there was already a sizable queue. Anyway, here's the deets (I don't have a full recording of this since my phone was about to die so this is just what I remember):

Louis Hobson, one of the producers in London and producer for the concept album, did trivia and gave away merch. He introduced the album sneak peeks with, "Some of these tracks just came to me today and we put them in the show today."

Frank Wildhorn was in Hawaii and couldn't make it, but he recorded a brief video to say hi. I saw it shared as an Instagram story later but I can't find it now so it's possible it didn't get preserved. Luckily I was still recording at this point :)

"Hey everybody, aloha, this is Frank Wildhorn, the composer of Death Note! I wanted to welcome you all to comic con and to this wonderful adventure that we are all on. For a few years ago [sic], when I was asked by my Japanese producers to do a musical of Death Note, I wasn't so into anime and the manga world, but my kids were, and my kids introduced me to the genre, and it's amazing - it's such great source material and of course it has the best fans in the world, you guys. I'm so happy and honored to have the chance to do this for you and i hope you enjoy the experience of comic con. Much love, aloha, arigato gozaimasu, ??? signing off."

Dean John-Wilson performed The Way Things Are:

Ashley Loren performed When Love Comes:

Joaquin Pedro Valdes did not perform due to being on vocal rest but we did get to watch his reaction to hearing the final cut of Where is the Justice? for the first time:

I don't remember all the tracks they showed us but I do know The Game Begins and Kira were two of them.

They had planned to do a cosplay contest, but it was immediately evident that @seximexipapi (IG) should win:

[ID: 1. DJW crouching and JPV standing in front of an elaborate, height-accurate Ryuk cosplay. JPV holds the Death Note in one hand and an apple in the other. 2. JPV holding a microphone to the Ryuk cosplayer, who has pushed up his mask.]

JPV made this video of him walking down the aisle with Ryuk. On the left side you can briefly see Yuzo Kajiyama, the original producer of the Japanese production, standing up and filming in his L cosplay:

They closed the night by announcing the official track list:

[ID: a presentation slide that has the Death Note the Musical logo of an apple on a notebook and says "Official Track List: Overture, Where is the Justice?, They're Only Human, Hurricane, Kira, Ready or Not, We All Need a Hero, The Game Begins, There Are Lines, Mortals and Fools, I'll Only Love You More, The Way Things Are, Honor Bound, Playing His Game, Borrowed Time, When Love Comes, The Way It Ends, Requiem." ]

It's odd that they "announced" this because the track list was previously released on WhatsOnStage.com at the same time the new album was announced; however the previous track list didn't have The Way It Ends on it so I'm glad they did. Not sure why Secrets and Lies and Stalemate were cut but I'm glad to finally be getting The Way Things Are in English.

OH and I remember at the very end Hobson vagueing about big news coming soon :)