A magical musical
The state theatre in Darmstadt showed the world premiere of the musical Timm Thaler, directed by Stanislav Moša, on 17th November 2013. The show is based on the novel of the same name by James Krüss, which was also published in Czech under the name Ukradený smích (Stolen Laughter). Timm Thaler, a young boy well-known for his typical fragile, refreshing, happy child´s laughter, finds his existence under threat and so enters into an unfortunate agreement with Baron Lefuet (the Devil), selling the baron his laughter in return for the opportunity to win every bet. Timm quickly becomes the richest man in the world, but he isn´t happy. He misses his laughter, and so decides to get it back... A journey follows that is full of adventures, traps, betrayal, pitfalls, friendly help and unwavering love, and ending with the final victory of brilliant intelligence. The story became exceptionally popular in Western Europe, which was also thanks to a TV series filmed by the ZDF TV company in 1979. Musical composer Xavier Naidoo is one of today’s most popular German musicians. The fact that Stanislav Moša was addressed to stage the world premiere of this work (as with the musical Pope Joan) together with his team – conductor Dan Kalousek and choreographer Aneta Majerová – demonstrates that his work is renowned all over Europe, and that the work of his colleagues is also held in high esteem. The production will be presented to our audience as a Czech premiere and also as the first performance after the world premiere.
