The king of rock ’n’ roll, Elvis Presley, has had many reimaginings in popular culture, but Japanese noh theater might be one of his most unexpected contexts yet. Nonetheless his ghost will be on stage in Tokyo on Oct. 10 and 11. Theatre Nohgaku will bring its original noh play “Blue Moon Over Memphis” to the sophomore edition of Autumn Meteorite Tokyo, one of Japan’s largest performing arts festivals that takes place at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in Ikebukuro.
Although the play was previously performed at Waseda University’s Okuma Auditorium and Kyoto’s Kongo Noh Theatre in 2024 and at Tokyo’s Kita Noh Theatre in 2025, Autumn Meteorite contextualizes the work in the constellation of world theater and brings it to wider audiences. This time, the venue will be a contemporary theater stage instead of a traditional noh stage with four pillars and the show is just one of the festival’s international offerings.
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