Wikipedia
, also known as "TeniPuri Musical," or "Tenimyu," , is a series of live action stage musicals directed by Yukio Ueshima based on manga series The Prince of Tennis created by Takeshi Konomi and serialized by Shueisha in Weekly Shōnen Jump.
The first musical premièred in the Golden Week of 2003, and the unexpected popularity, especially among girls, and requests for merchandise of the show encouraged Marvelous Entertainment to follow through with the series. Each new show covers an arc of the manga storyline, though adaptations to the original story were made to fit the format. Female characters were removed, and irrelevant scenes or minor arcs were cut to move the plot forward.
At the start of the production, tickets did not sell out and the type of production was merely an experiment. Manga-based musicals were not frequently seen, if at all. But, within 5 years the musical became popular enough to demand for double casting of characters to handle the amount of performances and to allow for overseas performances in Korea and Taiwan. In addition multiple shows were live streamed into theatres all around the country to make up for the lack of enough seats in the actual venue. Eventually the musical production launched the careers of many of the "hottest" idols in Japan, like Kimeru, Saito Takumi, Kazuki Kato, and Yuu Shirota. Even Europe got a taste of the production, when three of the actors (namely Ryousuke Katou, Shintarou Akiyama and Yuuichirou Hirata) hit Paris to attend the 10th edition of the Japan Expo in 2009
In May 2010, after 7 years, 22 musicals, 5 main casts and about 150 different actors had passed, the "first season" came to an end with the last performance of Dream Live 7th on the 23rd. Not too long after the end of the first season the start of a “second season” was announced. The upcoming shows feature a completely new cast and a new script, but cover the same arcs as the first season.