Beth Winter

I'm very happy for an operetta show, and the cast list that went up today looks great.

Lead roles were out earlier, of course, and I think Kiriyan's going to have an absolute ball with not!Sandor. Kumichou getting Carnero was a given, and Natori Rei gets to be Zsupan the father. Musumeyaku-wise Mihou Aya gets a nice taidan role, while Hanase Mizuka is Maria Theresa. I guess that means a prominent third act in Vienna, which I'm all for, because Aoki Izumi is Graf Hommonay, a lovely upperclassman role in spiffy uniform ♥ Of the other upperclassmen, Magee gets to play Natori Rei's servant, and I think Sonoka's role is renamed.

One thing I do wonder about is the question of Tsukigumi's nibante musumeyaku, because they're all ove the place ~_~ The most prominent role apart from Saffi should be Arsena, Zsupan's daughter and Mirio!Ottokar's lover, which went to Ayahoshi Rion, fresh off her Pimpernel shinko lead. I guess they're trying her out?

Retirements are sparse, which seems to be the fashion this year, though it does mean that Morie will be the only 85th left in Tsukigumi. Incidentally, this brings us up to all but one Daigekijou show's retirements announced for this year, and since that last one will be Hoshigumi who already lost 7 people this year and 13 last year, I can hazard a guess that Officer And A Gentleman taidansha will be sparse. Which means that there's a good chance of total 2010 taidan being under 40, in comparison to 2009's 64. There was a reason last year felt like everyone was retiring...

So, Chauvelin and Armand are going to be role-switches between Masaki and Mirio. At least the schedule's less crazy than Elisabeth, with week-on, week-off (which both of them will need to recover their voices). I'm confident that Masaki will be fantastic, a little wary about how Mirio will manage a villain role, but

Dear Hankyu, if you already managed to cough up a proper top musumeyaku for Tsukigumi, would it kill you not to wait another year or more to resolve the M situation?

I mean, it's somewhat ridiculous, what with Morie, Masaki and Mirio all now upperclassmen with a solid schedule of leads, major roles etc. Of them all, I know my dear Morie is at a star-track disadvantage - she's an 85th, eldest of them, with least shinko leads (though I'll always adore her Death) and only one shared Bow lead that I really need to post a review for. I adore her smile, and I would be more than happy to have her get solid upperclassman roles forever, but *touches wood* there's a bad record for people who fall off star-track after being nominally on it, and she had that leg trouble in Last Play. Masaki got Hamlet!!, and Mirio is everywhere, but IMHO neither of them are quite ready for the demands of nibante roles - Masaki almost killed herself with Lucheni.

For what it's worth, my bets: Tsukigumi will finally get a transfer nibante from somewhere (Micchan coming back? One of the Flower girls?), and, on top of that, at least one between Masaki and Mirio will get transferred, probably Mirio. Morie... *crosses fingers SO firmly*