Singaporean actor Xander Pang to play Light Yagami in London’s Death Note musical
The 25-year-old actor will play the lead role of Light Yagami in the musical adaptation of the highly-acclaimed bestselling manga at London’s Barbican Theatre this July.
Actor Xander Pang will be playing the character Light Yagami in the upcoming Death Note: The Musical at the Barbican Theatre in London, United Kingdom. (Photo: Death Note: The Musical UK)
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Singaporean actor Xander Pang will be bringing to life the renowed genius Light Yagami in Death Note: The Musical, which will run at the Barbican Theatre in London from Jul 30 to Sep 12.
The musical is based on the bestselling manga written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. Its story follows high-achieving high school student Light Yagami, who discovers a supernatural notebook that allows him to kill anyone whose name is written in it. As he begins using the notebook to eliminate criminals, he attracts the attention of the enigmatic detective L.
In the musical, the eccentric detective will be played by British actor Colin Ryan. Its score is by Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn, with lyrics by Jack Murphy and a book by Ivan Menchell.
Pang, 25, joins a list of actors who have portrayed Light Yagami across different adaptations of Death Note.
These include Mamoru Miyano, who voiced the character in the iconic anime series; Tatsuya Fujiwara, who played Light in the 2006 live-action films; Masataka Kubota, who starred as the character in the 2015 Japanese television drama; and Nat Wolff, who portrayed the Americanised version of the character, Light Turner, in Netflix’s 2017 adaptation.
Originally premiering in Tokyo in 2015, Death Note: The Musical was first staged in Japanese despite having been written in English. A Korean-language production followed later that year, while the show’s English-language premiere took place in London in 2023.
In a video shared on the musical’s social media, Pang described Death Note as an “iconic” story and said being part of the production was especially “special”.
“To see East Asian representation on such a large scale means a lot to me, and I think will mean a lot to a lot of people,” he said.
Pang, son of actor, director and Pangdemonium co-founder Adrian Pang, has also previously appeared in productions including The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical at London’s The Other Palace Theatre and Singapore Repertory Theatre’s production of Macbeth, where he played Fleance.
More recently, he appeared in local filmmaker Annette Lee’s movie Dream Stall, portraying Preston, a food and lifestyle content creator.
Source: CNA/iz
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