| Never Say Goodbye | |
|---|---|
Japanese production poster | |
| Music | Frank Wildhorn |
| Lyrics | Shûichirô Koike |
| Book | Shûichirô Koike |
| Productions | 2006 Takarazuka, Japan 2006 Tokyo, Japan |
Never Say Goodbye is a musical with a book and lyrics by Shûichirô Koike and music by Frank Wildhorn. It was written specifically for Takarazuka Revue, the all-female Japanese theatre company. Wildhorn was the first non-Japanese to write an original musical for the company.
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.
Frank Wildhorn is an American composer known for both his musicals and popular songs. He is most known for his musical Jekyll & Hyde, which ran four years on Broadway, and for writing the #1 International hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" for Whitney Houston.
The Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical theater troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western-style musicals, and sometimes stories adapted from shōjo manga and Japanese folktales. The company is a division of the Hankyu Railway company; all members of the troupe are employed by the company.
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Set against the background of the Spanish Civil War, the plot centers on socialist playwright Katherine McGregor and renowned photographer Georges Malraux, a Polish Jew who fled his homeland for Paris. The two first meet in Hollywood at a party announcing the film adaptation of Katherine's play Tempest in Spain, based on the opera Carmen . The two are reunited in Barcelona, where they unexpectedly find themselves falling in love as they become embroiled in a battle against fascism. [1]
The Spanish Civil War took place from 1936 to 1939. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Second Spanish Republic, in alliance with the Anarchists and Communists, fought against the Nationalists, an alliance of Falangists, Monarchists, and Catholics, led by General Francisco Franco. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war had many facets, and different views saw it as class struggle, a war of religion, a struggle between dictatorship and republican democracy, between revolution and counterrevolution, between fascism and anarchism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939 and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.
Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production and workers' self-management, as well as the political theories and movements associated with them. Social ownership can be public, collective or cooperative ownership, or citizen ownership of equity. There are many varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them, with social ownership being the common element shared by its various forms.
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Directed by Koike, the production was staged in 2006 at the Takarazuka Grand Theater in Takarazuka, Hyōgo from March 24 through May 8, and at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater in Tokyo, Japan from May 26 through July 2. The cast included Mari Hanafusa as Katherine and Yōka Wao as Georges. Never Say Goodbye marked the final performance of both stars before their retirement from the troupe. [2]
Takarazuka Grand Theater is a home for Takarazuka Creative Arts.
Takarazuka is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. As of October 1, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 225,228 and a population density of 2,200 persons per km2. The total area is 101.89 km2.
Tokyo Takarazuka Theater is another home for Takarazuka Creative Arts in Yurakucho, Chiyoda ward, Tokyo.
A full-length cast recording, a folio of sheet music, and a video and DVD of the show have been released.
