Photos & Video: First Look at MEMOIRS OF AMOROUS GENTLEMEN

You can get a first look at production photos and a music video from Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, the new off-Broadway musical with music & lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award-winner Duncan Sheik and book by Leah Nanako Winkler, ahead of its opening night tonight, Thursday, October 15 at the brand-new venue ‘The Night Egg’ at the Culture Club. Watch a music video of Cory Jeacoma and the cast performing Hoops!

Based on the manga graphic novel “Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen” by Moyoco Anno and directed and choreographed by Tony, Olivier and Emmy Award-winner Rob Ashford, Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen stars Sophia Anne Caruso (Beetlejuice) as ‘Colette,’ Cory Jeacoma (Beautiful) as ‘Léon,’ Nkeki Obi-Melekwe (Tina) as ‘Nana,’ Marc delaCruz (Hamilton) as ‘Sakae’, and Drama Desk Award nominee Jenny Powers (Little Women) as ‘Madame’, along with Leanne Antonio (The Lion King), Kailin Brown, Alexa De Barr (Death Becomes Her), Michael Everett (Aladdin), Elsa Keefe (& Juliet), Jaedynn Latter (Les Misérables), Austin Lesch (Frozen), Nika Lindsay (Frozen), Caleb Marshall (Moulin Rouge!), Jessie Peltier (Smash), Michael Starr (Bright Star), and Thomas Winter.

Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen is the first manga to be developed into an American musical in the English language. The new musical features music supervision, vocal, and incidental music arrangements by Or Matias.

The brand-new venue, ‘The Night Egg’ at the Culture Club is thusly named after a reference to the club in the Japanese manga for which the musical is based. The venue is the former home of the iconic 90’s Twilo Nightclub and the infamous Sleep No More.

Based on Moyoco Anno's award-winning manga of the same name, Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen is a daring new musical about Colette (Caruso), a witty young dreamer in 20th-century Paris, who finds her power through writing. While working at an elusive maison close called Night Egg, she begins chronicling the fantasies, confessions, and private sorrows of her eccentric clients, slowly transforming herself from object to observer—turning perversions into art. But underneath her sharp intelligence and growing independence, Colette has her own perversion she cannot outrun: a lingering, destructive attachment to Léon (Jeacoma), her childhood love, whose toxic hold on her continues to blur the line between devotion and self-destruction.

Originating in 12th century Japanese artworks, manga are graphic novels with a distinct style evolved uniquely in Japan, which has nurtured artists and their works while building a global industry worth over $10 billion. Moyoco Anno is one of Japan’s most renowned, award-winning manga artists, known for her deep exploration of character psychology and her vast worldwide fan base. Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen was serialized in a manga magazine from 2013 to 2018, and later published as a two-volume set. It received the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2020 and is the first Japanese manga to be adapted into an American musical.

Photo credit: Andy Henderson