Synopsis(From the OBC booklet) As the lights come on Pacific Overtures to the strains of a Japanese folk song, the reciter is seen kneeling in front of a boldly patterned show curtain, his head touching the floor in prayer. A stage hand runs the curtain across the stage to reveal the company. They join the reciter in extolling (The Advantages Of Floating In The Middle Of The Sea), offering and introduction to the quality of life in 1853 Japan. Living safely and serenely behind their delicately painted screens, the Japanese wish only to maintain their sacred isolation.The reciter introduces a scene at the court of the Shogun, the top warlord who rules Japan in the name of the one-year-old figurehead Emperor. The Shoguns councilors have gathered to deal with a Japanese prisoner in Western dress, who is carried down the hanamichi in a cage. The prisoner is a fisherman named Manjiro, who was shipwrecked at age 14. Rescued by an American ship he was taken to a place called Massachusetts, where he was educated. Now, some years later, he has returned to forewarn his countrymen of the oncoming expedition of four American warships.
Fearing the arrival of the barbarians, the Shogun's chief councilor, lord Abe decides upon a plan to fend off a visit from foreigners. A samurai of little consequence named Kayama is promoted to the office of Perfect of Police of Uraga and charged with the duty of meeting the intruders. He is to venture out in a small skiff to order the warships away, informing them of the sacred decree that no foreigner may set foot on Japan's holy soil.
Fully aware of his slim chance for success, Kayama resigns himself to his fate, returning home to prepare for his mission and to inform his wife Tamate of his situation. During this scene at Kayama's home two observers appear onstage to sing (There Is No Other Way). As Tamate expresses herself in silent, the first observer sings about her while the second sings her words and thoughts.
As the scene fades, an enormous bell descends from the flies, sending out the alarm signaling the sighting of the American Ships (Four Black Dragons). Panic spreads through the countryside, climaxed by the materialization of Commodore Perry's massive flagship, a menacing man-of-war, with American officers and crew members stationed on deck alongside a battery of cannons.
Kayama dutifully approaches the warship in his Japanese guard boat, unimpressed, the Americans derisively inform him that the greetings and trade agreement from their President, Millard H. Fillmore, require someone of the highest political importance to receive them. Kayama retreats to the Shogun's councilors to convince them that anyone dressed in regal costume could pass for a high official. Pleased with his plan, the councilors send for the imprisoned fisherman Manjiro, hoping that his experience with Americans will make him equal to the task.
Kayama and Manjiro sail back out to Perry's ship, and though Manjiro is not able to turn the Americans away, he does know how to command their attention. He is informed that Commodore Perry will send a landing party ashore in six days to formally present the treaty, with all due respect for Japanese custom. If the Shogun does not wish to cooperate, the Americans will "blow Uraga off the face of the earth!"
The scene shifts to the bedchamber of the dissolute Shogun, who appears for the first time, surrounded by his mother, wife, companion, physician, priests, soothsayer and a pair of sumo wrestlers. In (Chrysanthemum Tea) the shogun's mother leads a day-by-day countdown anticipating the American landing part, trying in vain to stimulate her son into action to face the intruders. Deciding that having no Shogun at all would be preferable to having an ineffectual one, she relieves him of his duties permanently through a small addition to his tea. "The Blossom falls on the mountain. The Mountain falls on the blossom. All things fall."
At the Shogun's court the councilors have assembled to hear Kayama and Majiro propose a further scheme to get rid of the Americans. Since the Japanese cannot compete with the American artillery, it is suggested that Perry's landing party be received. To circumvent the problem of frogging feet on holy soil, Kayama and Manjiro have devised a plan to construct a special treaty house at Kanagawa, and to cover all the sand with tatami mats. After the Americans are received and depart satisfied, the treaty house can be destroyed and the mats burned, with no barbarian feet ever having defiled sacred ground. It will be just as if the westerners had never been there.
Impressed with this plan, the councilors immediately promote Kayama to the office of Governor of Uraga and set in motion all the necessary arrangements to implement the plan. At Kauyama's request Manjiuro is placed in his service. The two men happily set off on the journey back to Kayama's home, where his wife awaits him. During the joyful walk the two exchange (Poems). Upon arriving at home Kayla discovers that Tantate has committed suicide.
Attention shifts to a hefty, garish woman making her entrance down the hanamichi leading four young girls. Unlike everyone else, the Japanese madam and her inexperienced charges are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Americans (Welcome To Kanagawa).
On the appointed sixth day with the treaty house standing and the ground well covered with mats the Japanese welcome the American landing party. Just as the Reciter is informing us that there is no Japanese record of what transpired at that historic meeting an old man interrupts "Pardon me, I was there." As a child the old man had spied upon the proceedings from a hidden vantage point up in a tree. The Japanese also had a warrior hidden underneath the floorboards of the treaty house ready to attack in the event of American treachery. Each delivers his version of what happened at the treaty house in (Someone In A Tree).
After the Americans leave Kanagawa and return to their ships the Japanese complete their plan by dismantling the treaty house and burning the mats, being careful not to let the contaminated side touch the ground.
The end of Act 1 takes the form of a traditional and triumphant Kabuki lion dance, the lion in this case embodying evil in the character of Commodore Perry.
Act II which spans the time period from 1854 to the present, opens in the spiritual heart of all Japan, the imperial court of the Emperor in Kyoto. The Emperor (in the form of a puppet) sits on an elevated platform. The court is conducting a ceremony to formally acknowledge Lord Abe, Kayama and Mamjiro as the saviors of Japan and to reward the fisherman Manjiro by elevating him to the rank of samurai. Speaking for the Emperor, a priest declaims, "The emperor smiles upon his loyal subjects and permits them to depart--secure in the knowledge that the barbarian has forever been removed.
Lord Abe is separated from the court and left alone onstage. Suddenly, to the accompaniment of a distant fife, an American admiral appears at the rear of the hanamichi and begins to march toward the stage. Armed with a plaque and official documents, he welcomes himself with (Please Hello). Quickly following, one after another, down the hanamichi come British, Dutch, Russian and French admirals -- all singing further demands. The inevitable Westernization is well underway.
Things change rapidly as coastal towns are penetrated by foreign merchants. Businessman soon come to Japan to set up factories.
A scene change shows Kayama and Manjiro seated separately before small tea tables. While Manjiro studies the ancient tea ceremony Kayama sings (A Bowler Hat) interspersed with a series of letter, the song accomplishes a cinematic time progression of ten years, illustrating Kayama's growing affluence and Westenization. By the end of the number the two countrymen have become entirely different: Kayama the energetic Westernized official, Manjiro, the doggedly traditional samurai.
As time passes, the presence of alien cultures becomes more disruptive. Three British sailors, out for a good time, happen to peer over a wall into a garden where a beautiful girl is picking flowers. Supposing that she might be "one of them geisha girls," the three sailors hop over the wall and politely attempt to buy her favors (Pretty Lady). Finally unable to cope, the girl summons her father who angrily draws his sword, killing one of the sailors while the other two escape.
During a nighttime journey, accompanied by a retinue of guards and servants, Lord Abe and Kayama discuss the political ramifications of the murder of the British sailor. Suddenly they are ambushed by a raiding party of samurai sent by the Lords of the South, strong advocates of a movement to save Japan by expelling the barbarians and restoring political power to the Emperor. A violent battle ensues during which Lord Abe is assassinated. All those involved in the fighting, except for Kayama and one of the dissident samurai are either struck down or flee. Confronting the lone conspirator, Kamaya is staggered by the realization that the man ready to kill him is Manjiro, who challenges: "Will you draw your sword as a fellow samurai or shall I cut you down like the Western fog you have become?" They fight, Kayama is killed.
The Lords of the South enter carrying the Emperor (now a life-size puppet). In the name of the Emperor, Manjiro's victory is hailed by the lords. But they are cut short by the Emperor, who abruptly comes to life, dropping his mask to stand and pronounce that from this point forward he shall speak for himself. Discarding his sacred robes, he emerges in a regal Western-style military uniform. He proclaims that in the name of progress, the Japanese people must renounce their ancient ways and devote themselves to arriving at the day, "when the Western powers will acknowledge us as their undisputed equals."
With this resolution, the onstage scene is catapulted to 1976, with the entire company in contemporary Western dress frenetically singing dancing and celebrating Japan's amazing progress (Next!)
"There was a time when foreigners were not welcome here," declares the Reciter, "but that was long ago. A hundred and twenty-six years. Welcome to Japan."
