The Spirited Away Stage Show Comes to the Ahmanson in 2027

Spirited Away, the stage adaptation of the Studio Ghibli film directed and co-adapted by John Caird with Maoko Imai, comes to the Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center for a strictly limited engagement running September 2 through October 24, 2027.

The production is staged with a cast of 50, a live orchestra and full-scale puppetry designed by Toby Olié, with the soot sprites, Haku's dragon and the bathhouse creatures operated onstage as puppets while No-Face and Yubaba are played by live performers. It picked up multiple Olivier nominations for its design and puppetry and won Best New Play at the 2025 WhatsOnStage Awards. It is performed entirely in Japanese with English surtitles, an unusual choice for a commercial Ahmanson booking.

Tickets are not on sale and no prices or on-sale date have been announced. The production's official site is currently collecting priority-booking registrations. No Los Angeles casting has been announced, and the cast rotation listed on the official site applies to the London and Asia engagements only. For scale, the London run drew more than 300,000 across 17 weeks and added a five-week extension, while the Shanghai and Seoul engagements sold out entirely.