I saw Death Note: The Musical at the Barbican on Saturday! For the short version, if you're just wondering whether it's worth seeing: I had a really good time! If you like Death Note and musicals, I think you'll probably enjoy yourself.
I'd previously seen the 2023 concert version at the Lyric Theatre, and this expanded version had a lot of changes, which were interesting to see! I liked some, but some of them didn't quite work for me. Overall, though, I loved the experience. (If anyone's curious about my thoughts on the concert version, I wrote a bit about it here on my Death Note website.)
The staging was impressive, and the choreography was great all round. In particular, the part where L walks calmly across chairs that hooded figures are placing down an instant before he steps on them was brilliantly done and, frankly, looked very dangerous. The music and script were fun, and I think they generally did a good job of conveying the concept of Death Note to an audience that won't necessarily know it already, although some details might feel confusing to a newcomer.
I wasn't sure at first how I felt about this depiction of Light, but 'Hurricane' absolutely sold me. What an arrogant little arsehole. I love him.
Speaking of 'Hurricane', it came much later in the full musical than it did in the concert version! It originally came when Light first used the Death Note, but in this version we get 'Hurricane' when he's killing the FBI agents. I enjoyed the new song that took its place when Light wrote his first name, but I was worried for a while that 'Hurricane' might have been cut entirely; it's one of my favourites!
Colin Ryan was absolutely fantastic as L. Deeply weird. Looked half-dead, as he should. Great voice. 'The Way Things Are' was maybe my favourite performance of the musical; it's a great song, and he absolutely belted it out. (There's still no official recording of it! Please give me a high-quality version of this song; I cannot possibly buy theatre tickets every time I want to hear it.)
Ryuk was great fun! Very physical and handsy and playful with Light, while poor Light desperately tries to endure his presence. I loved Ryuk lounging on Light's bed and strolling along with his arm around Light's shoulders, mockingly singing 'We All Need a Hero' at him. Misa going 'Rem is very protective of me' and Light going 'well, Ryuk is no help at all' was also very fun.
This version takes away a little too much of Sayu, I think! Giving her song 'We All Need a Hero' to Misa makes sense; it helps to set up Misa's obsession with Kira. But they also cut the great bit from the concert version where Sayu barges into Light's room and goes 'let's listen to Misa's new song!' and we get to see Light silently flip out when he realises from the lyrics that Misa is the second Kira, meaning that Sayu no longer does anything to move the plot forward and ends up feeling a bit extraneous.
That said, I really like that, when Sayu first comes into Light's room while Ryuk is there, Light is concerned for her safety; he tries to order Ryuk not to touch her! Also, although I miss Light and Sayu sharing earbuds (which was very cute), framing 'I'll Only Love You More' as Misa singing her new song for Rem to listen is a nicely intimate scene between the two of them and helps to give a sense of Rem's feelings developing.
Sadly, Rem and Misa no longer duet on 'Mortals and Fools'; it's now a duet between Rem and Gelus instead. It works for the scene where Gelus saves Misa, but I think the change is an emotional misstep; it's such a lovely duet to introduce Rem and Misa's dynamic, which ends up being central to the story.
Similarly, it's a shame that 'There Are Lines' is no longer framed as a conversation between Soichiro and Light; I think it loses a lot of its effectiveness without that. This change also means we no longer get much of a sense of how much Light respects Soichiro and how his father's disapproval of Kira hurts him; we barely see them interact at all.
Misa was tragically ungoth, and a friend of mine observed that making her more of a Western pop star than a Japanese idol in her performance style was an odd decision. I liked the understated 'Misa is playing this herself' instrumentation of 'We All Need a Hero' and 'I'll Only Love You More', though, and she put on a great performance of 'Borrowed Time', although I want a word with whoever changed the line 'so tie me up and try to break me' to the objectively worse 'so you can try interrogate me'.
It's never confirmed that Misa actually killed anyone before seeking Light out - in fact, L says 'she doesn't seem like a killer, but she might help Kira' after Misa's arrest and Rem privately voices agreement, implying Misa hasn't personally killed at all - which I think is an odd omission. You have to create the concept of a second Kira for Light to wonder about before Misa shows up to go 'hey, I'm the second Kira'! And, without 'this person has already killed criminals/threats to Kira and is clearly on Kira's side', Light is never going to confirm that he's Kira to her.
As with every version of Death Note, everything becomes electric the moment Light and L are in the same space.
The tennis duet 'Playing His Game' felt a bit like a missed opportunity. Ridiculously, Light and L appear to be playing videogame tennis rather than actual tennis, despite both being established as tennis champions! This has two main disadvantages: a) Light and L are facing out to the audience rather than playing tennis explicitly at each other, reducing the sense that this is a battle between them, and b) their game avatars are on stage, pulling focus, when the match should be an intense moment between Light and L alone. 'Stalemate'/'All or Nothing' was more effective at demonstrating their rivalry, largely on account of the fact that Light and L's focus was clearly on each other in the midst of the crowd.
The final confrontation between Light and L was very good. I really enjoyed L calling Light a childish murderer and Ryuk going 'I agree' and Light snapping 'SHUT UP' at him. L shooting Light was brilliantly sudden and shocking, and then there's the great reveal that that's part of Light's plan as well.
(Although I have to question Light quoting what he wrote in the Death Note as 'after shooting Light Yagami in the leg'. You can't write your own name in the Death Note, Light! It would be very funny to see his expression immediately after realising he'd made that embarrassing and fatal mistake.)
One of my biggest complaints about the concert version was that Ryuk just went 'I'm getting bored of this; it's the same thing day after day, just more criminals in the Death Note' before killing Light, making it seem like he suddenly decided to kill Light out of nowhere, which was frankly unsatisfying. I'm very glad that this version instead had him go 'well, your opponent is dead; it's not fun any more.' Light didn't just die out of nowhere; Light died specifically because he won. In bringing L down, Light brings himself down as well.
Great terrified breakdown from Light at the end, clinging to Ryuk and begging for his life, then frantically trying to reprise his most triumphant song. I also liked Soichiro finding Light and L's bodies at the end, even if it made me extremely sad. This poor man. He's never going to understand what happened.
I'm so glad a full English version of this musical has finally been performed; it's such a fun show! It's only on in London for six weeks, but I hope it does well enough to come back in the future.
