Toho Elisabeth: Omigod you guys!

[yukinojou]

Toho Elisabeth cast is up for the August-October 2010 run.

I saw it and kind of fell over.

First of all, I hereby crow about the Asako!Elisabeth rumour being confirmed. She must be working hard on recovering her soprano, but this is a glorious normal-theatre debut, a great role to start with, and she's going to own the stage.

Komu got Elisabeth again ♥ I just hope that this time, enterprising fans with cameras will do better ;)

Yuichiro Yamaguchi is Death again, because you'll have to hit him over the head with a shovel to get him off the stage. Since his voice is pure honeyed velvet, that is a YAY in my book.

We get two new Deaths, too. Shirota Yuu (since he has TeniMyu and SeraMyu history... *eyes TeniMyu and SeraMyu fans* any comments on how he'll handle a forceful rockstar demon?) and Ishimaru Kanji, an ex-Raoul I haven't seen.

And the real Omigod-You-Guys is for Sophie. Mori Keaki. Who's had like one role since her retirement as Yukigumi topstar (and Andre to Maki's Oscar) in 1993. Kotobuki Hizuru's the other Sophie, as usual, but Mori!

FYI, the Rudolf-of-the-month for October is Urai Kenji, Lucheni is Takashima Masahiro (aka Mr Sylvia Grab), and Franz Joseph is... Ishikawa Zen. Dear heavens, this is going to be good.

Now, where was my airplane ticket search engine?

Comments

[everchangingmuse]

This cast is made of awesome. Shirota Yuu AND Kenji Urai in the same production?! And Komu AND Asa as Elisabeth?! I think my brain may explode...in a good way.

Yamaguchi is amazing as Der Tod, but I'm sort-of hoping you get to see Yuu, so you can tell me how he's doing in the role. I loved him (and Kenji) in the SeraMyu shows mid-decade. I think he could do it, even if he's quite a bit younger than the other's who've played Der Tod on stage (unless I'm wrong in thinking Yamaguchi's in his 30s?). He can handle strong songs - "Prince of the Earth" was a good rock-ish balad in the SeraMyu shows.

The question is: which Elisabeth do you want to see live? Both will be amazing, I'm sure!

[yukinojou]

Yamaguchi is in his mid-50s. Yes. I know. Not fair, immortal, moving on...

*eyedart* I think I'll aim for both. Should be easy if we do the matinee and evening performance on the same day, and not like I haven't done this before - last time in Japan I went show-show-2shows-show in 4 days...

[everchangingmuse]

Mid 50s?! I hope I look that good when I hit my mid-50s. Damn.

If I went to Japan, I would be doing that as well - shows as often as I could. I hope you do get to see both!

About halfway down the road on my drive to work this morning, I realized that it is possible that Yuu and Kenji will get to duet on "Yami ga Hirogaru", and my brain nearly exploded in fannish delight. I'm sure the soundtrack (if there is one) will be Yamaguchi!Death, but I'd love to hear the two of them duet.

[yukinojou]

Isn't that so bloody unfair? His first lead-ish role was in the early/mid 80s as Rum Tum Tugger in Cats. I've got a DVD of him as Raoul in the lat 80s and he hasn't changed a bit, still handsome and slim and graceful.

And I think the new Elisabeths may finally make them put out a new cast album series. The good thing about Toho is that they make millions of them - I think they've got more than 15 Les Mis albums now, and they make sure to get all cast combinations.

[everchangingmuse]

Where does one buy these cast albums? I think my wallet may hate me for asking, but I love musicals too much not to ask.

[yukinojou]

Alas, the answer is usually "Taka-An" ;) I'm not sure where they'd be sold in the US - in Europe I'd probably recommend soundofmusic.de and dresscircle.co.uk. It might be worth asking on the comm, since Toho hires so many OGs.

[everchangingmuse]

Depending on the shipping, getting things from dresscircle or soundofmusic wouldn't be so bad. The markup on soundofmusic seems higher than on dresscircle, from what I can tell and my not-too-good math skills regarding currency conversion.

I will have to keep these places in mind; thank you for the links!