Charlie Chaplin at the Ballet

City Lights,” choreographed by Alastair Marriott for the National Ballet of Japan under artistic director Miyako Yoshida, made its world premiere this month in Tokyo, spinning the iconic 1931 Charles Chaplin movie of the same name to pure balletic gold.

Performance

The National Ballet of Japan: “City Lights” by Alastair Marriott

Place

New National Theatre Tokyo, Tokyo, October 24, 2026

Words

Kris Kosaka

Ren Ishiyama as the Tramp in “City Lights” by Alastair Marriott. Photograph by Takashi Shikama, Charlie Chaplin™ ©Bubbles Incorporated SA

Chaplin famously wrote, directed, and starred in the story of his Little Tramp who falls in love with a blind flower girl. He also composed most of the score, adapted for the orchestra by Chaplin expert Timothy Brock for this production, who also conducted select performances. Yet Marriott, Yoshida and team create much more than a homage to one movie. This magical ballet pays tribute to an entire era of arts and entertainment. It’s absotively the bee’s-knees, a paean to the Golden Age of Hollywood and dance itself. From the first to last scene, this electric retelling left me starstruck.

We open to a lively 1920s city street scene, a fast and fun ensemble of Citizen corps that immediately establishes Marriott’s glittering melange of steps. Unpredictable yet familiar, daring and coy, Marriott mixes popular dance forms with Chaplinesque movements, transmuting the whole into classical lines and balletic riffs with such delicate boldness, I remained perpetually giddy. Eagerly looking for the familiar, I found myself again and again surprised by Marriott’s fresh combinations. Even if you don’t know what you’re seeing—glimpses of the Charleston, the foxtrot, the Black Bottom, the shimmy, the tango—or Tramp trademarks like the duck-footed waddle, pivot and shrug, the skidding kick—the inventive twists melded to ballet prove a constant delight.

At the center, of course, is the Little Tramp, danced by Ren Ishiyama, perfectly flanked by the Blind Girl (Saho Shibayama) and the Millionaire (Jaebum Cho). For each of the central trio, Marriott’s choreographic vision demands technical superiority alongside a character artist’s soul. All three dancers deliver. Ishiyama as the Tramp charms and astounds with his plucky joie de vivre, epitomized by a complex cabriole from opened plié to a leaping straddle in his first solo. It also sets up an astute tonal contrast to Shibayama’s entrance. Delicately partnered by her Grandmother (Yuna Seki) Shibayama as the Blind Girl reveals both her disability and resignation to a dark reality in a subtly turned face, tentative half-steps and hesitant extensions.

Ren Ishiyama as the Tramp in “City Lights” by Alastair Marriott. Photograph by Takashi Shikama, Charlie Chaplin™ ©Bubbles Incorporated SA

Cho, too, is a marvel of both execution and character. His drunken swagger as the Millionaire slides into gracefully etched grief over his wife’s abandonment, starting with the infamous riverside scene, where the Tramp interrupts his suicidal anguish. Cho and Ishiyama embody the tightrope balance between comedy and tragedy, hope and despair, convincingly eloquent and unfailingly entertaining. Ishiyama and Shibayama’s pas de deux throughout the ballet are also a marvel, choreographed as a progressive unfolding as Shibayama gains confidence and belief in her unknown benefactor—and in new possibilities for the Blind Girl’s future, raising the hopes of the Tramp. The steps are reconfigured in their final pas de deux, a luminous display of physical storytelling, aching perfection.

But the Act One choreographic highlight belongs to the Nightclub, a glorious dance deviation from the film. From the exuberant ensemble jive of the Customers, to a trio of virtuoso Waiters (Shunsuke Mizui, Yu Onodera, Jinnosuke Tanaka) to the six Showgirls to the jaw-dropping excellence of the Movie Stars (Takafumi Watanabe and Akari Yoshida) and a challenging dance battle, it’s a riot of impressive dance sequences. That’s without the outstanding slapstick comedic moments, faithful to the movie.

And that brings up another reason this adaptation triumphs as its own entity. Marriott, Yoshida and co reproduce many memorable scenes, and remain faithful to the whole. The opening visual with the statues or the hilarious human-shield boxing sequence in Act Two play out wonderfully onstage.

National Ballet of Japan in “City Lights” by Alastair Marriott. Photograph by Takashi Shikama, Charlie Chaplin™ ©Bubbles Incorporated SA

But, like in the Nightclub scene, the creative team is not afraid to deviate when it serves the ballet. There are many quieter changes throughout. A nefarious Maid and Butler (Moeko Iina and Kenta Hara) heighten dramatic tension and add technical prowess, like in their feisty pas de deux. There is also an original umbrella ensemble in Act Two, an important emotional beat while calling to mind another classic performance in dance.

There’s additions unique to live productions, too, like enchanting stage effects, ingeniously crafted transitions, visual easter eggs for movie buffs, overall wow-factor sets and costume design by the always stupendous Dick Bird, with exquisite lighting by Ellen Ruge. In short, the ballet shines, incandescent, entirely on its own, with no knowledge necessary of the film.

But the little Tramp has long been known and adored in Japan, a country that culturally celebrates the underdog more than archetypal heroes. Physically and emotionally, it’s an inspired choice by Yoshida when Marriott suggested several original options for a new ballet. The team and NBJ rise up to dazzle. In spite of—because of?—his flaws as a human, Chaplin the creative highlights a profound human paradox in “City Lights,” brilliantly echoed in this ballet: we are often blind to reality in our pursuit of a dream. But, it’s a dark world, for everyone, without dreams. See it, if you can.

Kris Kosaka

Kris Kosaka is a writer and educator based in Kamakura, Japan. A lifelong ballet fan and studio rat in her youth, she's been contributing to the Japan Times since 2009. She writes across culture, but especially in dance, opera and literature.

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Charlie Chaplin at the Ballet

“City Lights,” choreographed by Alastair Marriott for the National Ballet of Japan under artistic director Miyako Yoshida, made its world premiere this month in Tokyo, spinning the iconic 1931 Charles Chaplin movie of the same name to pure balletic gold.

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