It¡¯s an age-old question: Which is more important in determining the course of our lives, nature or nurture? Actors Hayato Kakizawa and Eiji Wentz grapple with this absorbing issue in the musical ¡°Blood Brothers,¡± which kicked off its eighth all-Japanese production on March 21 and will run until April 3 at Tokyo International Forum.
Written by English playwright Willy Russell, ¡°Blood Brothers¡± traces the checkered lives of a pair of fraternal twins who are separated at birth, and it has long been a favorite among musical lovers. It first ran from 1983 to 2012 in London¡¯s West End, winning an Olivier Award in its opening season and becoming the third longest-running musical there, after ¡°Les Miserables¡± and ¡°The Phantom of the Opera.¡± It premiered in Tokyo with an all-Japanese cast in 1991 and has had multiple reruns featuring fresh cast members.
Set in the hardscrabble city of Liverpool in the 1960s, the story ¡ª often described as ¡°a Liverpudlian folk opera¡± ¡ª centers on Eddie (Wentz), who is adopted by a wealthy family, and Mickey (Kakizawa), who is raised in poverty by a single mother with numerous other children.
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