Two leading contenders to the throne of the contemporary drama world, now long occupied by Yukio Ninagawa, are certainly Suzuki Matsuo, 42, founder of the Otona Keikaku theater company, and the Asagaya Spiders' 30-year-old founder, Keishi Nagatsuka. Currently both of these rising stars happen to be staking their respective claims on amazingly high-quality productions in the heart of Tokyo's Shibuya.

Matsuo is returning to Theatre Cocoon with the megahit musical "Kirei (Beauty)," which he first staged there five years ago. This time, although he has ironed out some wrinkles in the script and drawn a clearer timeline through the work, as well as recasting some of the key roles, he has stuck closely to his original direction and wonderful, "Les Miserables"-like stagings.

Set sometime in a future Japan, where wars have been raging for 100 years between different ethnic groups, the shattered society he presents is riven every which way, with some profiting massively from the wars while most eke out destitute existences scavenging just to survive.