The Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic died during his trial for war crimes at The Hague in 2006. So his reincarnation in a glossy tracksuit for an experimental Serbian musical this week in Kosovo has provoked complicated feelings in the majority Albanian country.

“The Lift: The Slobodan Show” tracks the autocrat’s rise, focusing on his family relationships, particularly with his wife, Mirjana, and ends with his trial in The Hague. It is interspersed with accounts from the Serbian actors of their own memories of life under Milosevic in the 1990s. It premiered on Tuesday to applause, tears, and a few walkouts.

“A lot of people cried yesterday,” said the show’s director, Nenad Todorovic, in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “A few of them left the show very angry. Half of them were delighted.”

“It’s a weird kind of musical,” he added, “not like your Broadway musicals.”

Most people living in Kosovo are ethnic Albanians, but the musical is being staged by Serbs in the Serbian-majority town of Gracanica. Milosevic’s shadow still looms large throughout the region, and tensions remain high. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia and Serbian minority groups within Kosovo refuse to recognize it.