Chocolate Donut

Any Day Now, I Shall Be Released

Hi all,

Thank you for joining me for this Sunday Special commentary. If you’d like to hear the song before you read the background, there are two YouTube versions of “I Shall Be Released” below the article. 

For Japanese students, a glossary of the vocabulary in bold is provided below. 

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(749 words)

This post is a little different from what I usually write. Today, I’d like to tell you about a performance I attended here in Nagoya, Japan, last Thursday. I was called Chocolate Donut: Any day now. It was the only stage performance in the world (so far), based on the 2012 film, Any Day Now, written by Travis Fine and George Arthur Bloom, starring Alan Cumming. This stage adaptation was done by the internationally-acclaimed director, Miyamoto Amon, whose “Pacific Overtures” was nominated for four Tony Awards in 2005.

In brief, Chocolate Donut is about a man, Rudy, who dreams of being a singer like Bette Midler, but makes his living as a dancer at a gay bar. He happens to meet a bar customer, Paul, who is a lawyer, and they fall in love. Living next door to Rudy is a drug-addicted mother and her son, Marco, who had Down syndrome. The mother is taken away, leaving Marco alone. Rudy takes Marco in and decides to take care of him. The story continues with Rudy and Paul trying to gain custody of Marco.

Attending the performance of Any Day Now

There are a couple of things that stood out for me as a member of the audience.

A friend of mine, Mimi, managed to “win” tickets to see the show back in July. Thursday happened to be the last performance of the run. The show had started in Tokyo in October, then made its way to Osaka, Kumamoto, Miyagi, and finally here to Aichi Prefecture. I also learned that the main actor, Higashiyama Noriyuki, will be retiring from acting, so this was a very important event for the many fans in the audience. The auditorium holds 2,291 people, and I’m sure that was how many were there. I didn’t see one empty seat in the house.

I won’t tell you how the story ends, but in the last scene, Rudy is performing as a professional singer. The song he sings is I Shall Be Released by Bob Dylan. In Japanese, the lyrics were quite powerful coming at the end of an amazing show. I was deeply impressed with the audience, and I realized that this production, playing so many cities across Japan, has probably raised awareness about the injustice of not allowing some families to become legal families here. (Same-sex marriage has not been legalized in Japan. Many Japanese municipalities issue partnership certificates to same-sex couples, but there is no protection nation-wide.)

Why this song is important

The choice of the song I Shall Be Released is an important one both in the film and in this stage production, but I doubt that many Japanese understand its background. Bob Dylan wrote the song in 1967. The singer is talking about being in a prison. But it’s not just about being in jail with bars; it’s also about feeling trapped in life. The singer hears another person in the same situation, saying he’s innocent and was framed. The person singing the song is thinking about all the people who put him in this tough spot. He’s hoping that one day he’ll be set free. It’s as though Dylan is saying, “I want to be free not just from jail but from all the tough things in life that make me feel stuck.”

So, the song is about more than just getting out of a jail cell. It’s about wanting to break free from the difficulties in life, like a bird wanting to fly out of its cage. It’s important at the end of this production because it highlights the dream of members of the LGBT community to one day be free to live their lives openly and honestly with dignity with full legal protections.

The curtain closed and there was a standing ovation. The cast came on for their curtain call. And then, something happened that I had never seen before in Japan. The audience didn’t move. They just stood there, applauding. The curtains opened, and the cast took another bow. The curtains closed. And the audience didn’t move. Everyone stood there, clapping, for what was probably seven curtain calls. Every once in a while, Higashiyama Noriyuki was pushed to the front, he took a bow, but then rejoined the cast for a bow, the curtains closed, and again, the audience didn’t move. An article the next day said that the ovation lasted for over 12 minutes. Finally, the auditorium announcer said something (that we couldn’t hear) and people finally quieted down and began to leave. 

It was a most astonishing feeling.

Fans take photos of the production video outside the venue. Higashiyama Noriyuki is on the right in the poster.

Fans, holding their tickets, take commemorative photos in front of Forest Hall Theater, Niterra日本特殊陶業市民会館

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Question:

Have you ever “felt stuck”? Has a song ever given you hope for overcoming that feeling or situation?

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VOCABULARY

adaptation 脚色したもの

internationally-acclaimed 国際的に高い評価 

be nominated ノミネートされる

drug-addicted 麻薬中毒 

gain custody 身柄を得る

retire 引退 

auditorium 劇場

in the house (in the theater)

production 演出

injustice 不正

be legalized 合法化される

municipality 自治体

nation-wide 全国

feel trapped / feel stuck 抜き差しならぬ

innocent 無実

be framed はめられた

tough spot 苦境

honestly 正直に

dignity 威厳

standing ovation 喝采を送る

applaud 拍手を送る

clap 手をたたく

astonishing 衝撃的

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Joan Baez singing I Shall Be Released:

Bob Dylan (live version) 1984 with slightly different lyrics:

SOURCES

Tanaka, N. (2011, June 5). Amon Miyamoto: Globe-trotting dramatist seeks new horizons. The Japan Times. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2011/06/05/people/amon-miyamoto/. Accessed 24 Nov 2023.

Noriyuki Higashiyama thanks his fans on his last stage, saying “Thank you” and receiving a standing ovation from the audience that lasts for over 12 minutes (Article in Japanese):

東山紀之がラスト舞台で「ありがとう」とファンに感謝　観客からは１２分超えのスタンディングオベーション; (2023, November 24). 東山紀之がラスト舞台で「ありがとう」とファンに感謝　観客からは１２分超えのスタンディングオベーション. サンスポ. https://www.sanspo.com/article/20231124-UW7TYT32SROHTIX5Z27SJLVPQE/. Accessed 24 Nov 2023.

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Photos by author