Asia News: Arashi, SK Telecom, Sunburn & More

In early November, the organizers of Sunburn, the annual end-of-year electronic dance music festival held in Goa, India, announced it was going ahead with the 2020 version of the event, which would make it the 14th edition of Sunburn. 

The festival was scheduled for Dec. 27-29. However, in subsequent days Indian citizens flooded the local government with complaints, saying that the festival posed major health hazards due to the intensifying COVID pandemic in the country, and on Nov. 6 the tourism minister of Goa announced that the festival had been cancelled, saying, “We have taken the decision keeping in mind the health of the people of Goa.”

The event organizers, Percept Live, had expected about 10,000 people to attend Sunburn 2020, which is a huge reduction from past festivals that attracted hundreds of thousands from all over the world. 

In the same statement, the tourism minister said, “We wanted to promote tourism and get tourism-related businesses like taxis, restaurants, hotels started by having an even like Sunburn, but after we thought more about it, we decided to cancel the EDM festival due to the pandemic.” 

Health authorities in the vicinity have warned of a second COVID-19 wave in coming months. The local government says it has suffered economically since a nationwide lockdown was announced back in March. 

A new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “The Phantom of the Opera” began a performance run in Tokyo on October 24. 

In Japan, rights to perform the musical have been held since 1988 by the Shiki Theater Company, which operates a number of musical theater venues throughout Japan. According to Playbill magazine, this new production is being helmed by veteran theater director Arthur Masella, but with one significant difference. He is directing the entire stage production from his base in New York.

Japan is one of the few countries in the world that has resumed large-scale theatrical productions during the pandemic, thanks mainly to successful mask-wearing and social distancing measures, as well as an official test-and-trace policy. The new production of “Phantom,” which was being planned before the pandemic hit, was to be produced by the original London producer Cameron Mackintosh along with Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group. Masella, as part of this team, told Playbill that when he saw the Japanese production several years ago, he found it less emotionally engaging than what he was used to, and Shiki agreed to invite some of the people who had close ties to the original production to produce a new version.

However, by late summer it became evident that the technical and creative teams would not be able to travel to Japan, so Shiki devised means of getting the U.S. and U.K. members in the same rehearsal rooms as the performers via large-scale television monitors and teleconference software. Masella says the interactions went surprisingly well, and estimates that 85 to 90 percent of the “process” was the same as what would have happened had he gone to Japan in person. The main drawback was in terms of communication, but since the Japanese performers had done the musical many times before and Masella has worked previously with translators, it was not quite as difficult as expected. 

The main problem was, as Masella told Playbill, “that it’s much more difficult to gauge how people are really taking what you’re saying and whether or not you’re going in the right direction with them.” Consequently, Masella says that the experience has helped him hone his communication skills and should make his direction even more effective in the future, whether it be carried out in person or remotely. 

Then there was the time difference to work with. Masella and his crew in New York would lead sessions from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. New York time, which is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Japan time, while the U.K. team (mostly choreography) would work from 9 a.m. to noon, which is 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Japan time. 

Rolling Stone magazine has announced it will launch a Korean language edition later in November, according to Yonhap News Agency.

It will be the music magazine’s 12th international edition, produced in partnership with e.L.e. Media under license with Penske Media Corp. 

The new edition will be a mix of local content and syndicated materials published bi-monthly in print, with digital and video content also available. e.L.e. Media founder and CEO Ray Yeom said in a statement, “We see limitless possibilities for growth as leaders in the K-Pop industry, domestically and overseas, as we aim to create a cultural world that’s unified through music.”