Studio Ghibli’s work ‘like Shakespeare’, says My Neighbour Totoro stage show’s director

Hayao Miyazaki’s animations praised by Phelim McDermott as new production in West End announced

The work of Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki should be considered as remarkable and timeless as Shakespeare’s First Folio, according to the director of the hit stage adaptation of My Neighbour Totoro, which is returning to the West End next year.

Phelim McDermott, who was behind the six-time Olivier-winning production that was last at the Barbican in 2023, said Miyazaki’s work continued to attract audiences because it dealt in the same kind of universal themes which made the bard’s work endure.