Spirited Away: Live on Stage Coming to HBO Max Streaming Service in December

Spirited Away: Live on Stage, the theatrical version of Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved animated film of the same title, will begin streaming on HBO’s streaming service Max on December 24.

Spirited Away tells the story of Chihiro, a 10-year-old girl moving with her parents to their new home, and the mysterious adventures in which they become entangled. The original film from Studio Ghibli won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and went on to earn $396 million at the box office worldwide.

The stage iteration made its world premiere at Tokyo’s Imperial Theater in 2022. It has been adapted by director John Caird, co-adapted by Maoko Imai, and features the original film score by Joe Hisaishi. Spirited Away is performed in Japanese with English subtitles and by two alternating casts led by Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi as Chihiro.

Musical supervision, orchestrations and arrangements are by Brad Haak, with associate music supervision, orchestrations and ableton programming by Conor Keelan. The creative team also includes set designer Jon Bausor, puppet designer Toby Olié, choreographer Shigehiro Ide, costume designer Sachiko Nakahara, lighting designer Jiro Katsushiba, sound designer Koichi Yamamoto, hair and make-up designer Hiroaki Miyauchi, projection designer Satoshi Kuriyama, stage manager Takashi Hojo, assistant to the director Maoko Imai, associate director Makoto Nagai, co-producer Iain Gillie and producer Haruka Ogi.