The source for the musical masterpiece Carousel, now turned into a ballet with music by film score maestro Michel Legrand!
The moving story of the Ruffian Liliom bringing his ill-fated love from the "Next World"

Photo：Holger Badekow

One of John Neumeier's more recent works, Liliom turns Ferenc Molnár's drama--the basis for Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway musical masterpiece Carousel--into a movingly staged ballet. Neumeier--whose passions were stirred watching Carousel as a boy in the land of his birth, the USA--said that he was moved even further upon reading the play on which the musical was based and that he aspired to someday take it on himself.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the high-spirited ruffian Liliom lives a humble life with his lover Julie. But when he loses his job and becomes a thief to provide for the child whom Julie will bear, his failure and subsequent despair drive him to suicide. Allowed to return temporarily from "the next world" to the world of the living, Liliom is shaken to learn that his son, who resembles him, is now in the same situation. When it appears as though Liliom and Julie's tragic love and way of living may be passed down to the next generation, a "star" that Liliom brings from the next world gives rise to a ray of hope, bringing forth much excitement.

Much attention was given at the premiere to the fact that Neumeier commissioned the master film composer Michel Legrand--known for such tours de force as the soundtrack to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg--to write all the music for the show. Legrand's jazz-tinged score richly conveys the ambiance of the period as it rises to its crescendo. The Hamburg-based Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) Bigband, which has performed this set on stage since the first performance, will also bring its stylings to the Japanese production.

Alina Cojocaru--the talented star who was once the top principal at the Royal Ballet in the UK and now dances for the English National Ballet, in between the numerous guest performances entrusted to her by Neumeier--played Liliom's wife, Julie, at the premiere of the ballet. Cojocaru is slated to play the part in every performance in Japan. Liliom promises tears and emotion. Do not miss out!