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Rock Icon Melissa Etheridge Announces Solo Off-Broadway Show

Melissa Etheridge will unveil a solo show mixing her music and stories this fall off-Broadway. “Melissa Etheridge: My Window – A Journey Through Life” will play 12 performances only starting Oct. 13 at the midtown multi-stage venue New World Stages. (AP file)
Melissa Etheridge will unveil a solo show mixing her music and stories this fall off-Broadway. “Melissa Etheridge: My Window – A Journey Through Life” will play 12 performances only starting Oct. 13 at the midtown multi-stage venue New World Stages. (AP file)
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Rock Icon Melissa Etheridge Announces Solo Off-Broadway Show

Melissa Etheridge will unveil a solo show mixing her music and stories this fall off-Broadway. “Melissa Etheridge: My Window – A Journey Through Life” will play 12 performances only starting Oct. 13 at the midtown multi-stage venue New World Stages. (AP file)
Melissa Etheridge will unveil a solo show mixing her music and stories this fall off-Broadway. “Melissa Etheridge: My Window – A Journey Through Life” will play 12 performances only starting Oct. 13 at the midtown multi-stage venue New World Stages. (AP file)

Rocker Melissa Etheridge has found a new stage: The Grammy- and Oscar-winner will unveil a solo show mixing her music and stories off-Broadway.

“Melissa Etheridge: My Window – A Journey Through Life” will play 12 performances only starting Oct. 13 at the midtown multi-stage venue New World Stages.

“While I’ve been telling my life stories through my lyrics and concert tours for many years, this is going to be something new for me,” Etheridge said in a statement.

“I cannot wait to feel the exchange of energy and deep connection that’s provided by an intimate theater experience. That’s going to rock.”

Etheridge, best known for her songs “Come to My Window” and “I’m the Only One,” has been smitten by theater all her life and even stepped into the Green Day musical “American Idiot” for eight shows in early 2011 on Broadway, replacing Billie Joe Armstrong.

Like Bruce Springsteen’s recent Broadway run, her new show will have songs and stories, “from tales of her childhood in Kansas to her groundbreaking career highlights – with all of life’s hits and deep cuts between,” producers said in a statement.

Etheridge’s career and life have many twists, including winning an Oscar for writing “I Need to Wake Up” from Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” being diagnosed with breast cancer, and receiving two Grammys.

The show has been written by Etheridge, with additional material by Linda Wallem-Etheridge, the co-creator and showrunner for the Emmy Award-winning Showtime series “Nurse Jackie.” It will be directed by Amy Tinkham.

Prior to hitting the New York stage, Etheridge will finish her One Way Out national concert tour and release a graphic novel “Heartstrings” with Z2 Comics.

Etheridge, Springsteen and Armstrong are just a few rock stars who have played New York stages in their own shows, a list that also includes Sting, David Byrne and Sara Bareilles.

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Demand for Japanese Content Booms Post 'Shogun'

The critical and commercial success of TV's 'Shogun' has helped spark a new wave of Japanese content being developed for global consumption. Michael Tran / AFP/File
The critical and commercial success of TV's 'Shogun' has helped spark a new wave of Japanese content being developed for global consumption. Michael Tran / AFP/File
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Demand for Japanese Content Booms Post 'Shogun'

The critical and commercial success of TV's 'Shogun' has helped spark a new wave of Japanese content being developed for global consumption. Michael Tran / AFP/File
The critical and commercial success of TV's 'Shogun' has helped spark a new wave of Japanese content being developed for global consumption. Michael Tran / AFP/File

But "Shogun", based on the 1975 novel by Australian-British writer James Clavell, broke the mould when the period drama series -- mostly in Japanese and hailed for its authenticity -- won 18 Emmy awards in September.
Other recent Japanese works have also become worldwide hits.
Franco-US-Japanese show "Drops of God", based on a manga of the same name, won best drama series at the International Emmy Awards in November.
Netflix's 2023 adaptation of the manga superhit "One Piece" -- starring Mexican actor Inaki Godoy as the lead -- was hailed by viewers and critics alike and will return for a second season.
More adaptations of major manga and anime hits are in the works, including the superhero adventures of "My Hero Academia" and the ninja escapades of "Naruto".
"Demand from Western markets is clearly increasing," said Kaori Ikeda, managing director at TIFFCOM, the content trade fair affiliated with the Tokyo International Film Festival.
But Japanese companies lack "know-how" when it comes to things like negotiating rights, she told AFP.
So TIFFCOM has organized Tokyo Story Market, a space to facilitate networking and meetings between international producers and Japanese publishers.
'Whitewashing'
Foreign studios are also getting better at avoiding some of the pitfalls of the past, such as the 2017 film version of the manga "Ghost in the Shell" starring Scarlett Johansson.
Critics accused the movie, whose main actors except Takeshi Kitano were all non-Japanese, of "whitewashing".
Similarly, the 2017 supernatural thriller "Death Note" was panned for veering too far from the original manga.
"Manga authors are highly respected and fan communities are very vigilant," said Klaus Zimmermann, producer of "Drops of God".
His adaptation takes some liberties, such as starring a French actor as one of the main characters, but Zimmermann insists it was developed in collaboration with the authors of the original manga.
"It was about finding the spirit of the manga so as not to distort it," he told AFP.
Yuki Takamatsu, a rights negotiator at the manga's publishing house Kodansha, said the process of adapting "Drops of God" was "amazing".
"Everyone was open to tackling those challenges together... At every step, everyone was understanding about how we should do it," he said.
Past failures were in part down to publishers struggling to communicate their wishes to foreign producers, who in turn lacked a proper understanding of manga and anime, Takamatsu said.
"Back just 15, 20 years ago, most of the enquiries we received from those big studios were like, hey, I know 'Dragon Ball', do you have 'Dragon Ball' IP?" Takamatsu told AFP.
"But nowadays, especially since Covid, the producers in their 30s, 40s, they watch anime together with their kids on Netflix or Amazon" and then reach out, he said.
Japanese TV goes global
Japanese broadcasters have also become "better and better (at) presenting and marketing their content" abroad, said Makito Sugiyama, executive director at the Broadcast Program Export Association of Japan (BEAJ).
This includes their participation at global events such as MIPCOM in Cannes, an annual trade show for the television industry, Sugiyama said.
Japanese broadcasters have long had success selling show concepts abroad, like the one for "America's Funniest Home Videos", known in Britain as "You've Been Framed".
Now, some Japanese dramas are also finding a wider echo abroad.
Nippon TV's original drama "Mother" became a hit thanks in part to its Turkish remake, and has been broadcast in around 50 countries.
Western viewers have overcome their initial reluctance to watch series with Asian actors, believes Masaru Akiyama, chief executive of the BEAJ.
"They have got used to it, they don't care anymore. They want to see, they want to feel the stories."
"Shogun" was "a game changer for Japan," he added, and Ikeda agrees.
"That a samurai story with such attention to historical detail can become mainstream entertainment is proof of the potential" of Japanese content, she said.