While we were in Tokyo for the 100 Years of Yuri Tour, a number of us went to see a Takarazuka musical revue. I wrote about it here on Okazu, immediately after. I determined that I would definitely be buying this on Blu-Ray, because it was so epic. And, having watched it again, everything I said stands.

Hoshi-gumi Takarazuka Grand Theater Performance Musical Full-Course “GOD of STARS- Sacred Meal” / Space Revue Fantasia “Éclair Brillant” (星組宝塚大劇場公演 ミュージカル・フルコース 『GOD OF STARS -食聖-』/スペース・レビュー・ファンタジア 『Éclair Brillant 』) was flippin’ fantastic. It was everything Takarazuka all rolled up into one nutty narrative, with catchy music, crazy costumes, charismatic actresses and a bunch of songs that get lodged in your head for a week.

The story was almost exactly as I remembered it. I had wondered why I initially thought Red Boy was the Monkey King, but upon rewatch I understood why – in the first scene, Irene’s mother and she talk about how Saiyuki was her favorite story. You may be familiar with the manga/anime franchise, but the name is the Japanese rendition of the Chinese epic we know as The Journey to the West, which stars Sun Wukong (Son Goku), the Monkey King. Ah-hah! It wasn’t my imagination, there was a reference. I feel a bit better about that.

The first scene introduces us to Irene Chow, whose father makes the best gyoza. We then switch scenes to heaven where Celestial being Red Boy is celebrating his existence as “God of Stars,” when he meets with an accident.

We then find ourselves in Singapore watching Top Chef Hong Xing-Xing being confronted by Irene for his attempt to gentrify the waterside dive area known as Paradise Hawkers. Ousted from the show and his life by sponsor “Golden Group” CEO Eric, Hong is replaced by Dragon Lee, and framed for crimes. He finds himself alone, stripped of everything except his pride, and ends up at Paradise Hawkers…where he once again meets Irene. They bond over both not having parents: Hong has never known his and Irene’s mother left when her father started drinking, then he left too. She’s running the the family restaurant alone, but she has no cooking skills at all.

Hong attempts to regain his position and his pride by challenging Dragon Lee to a cooking contest. Hong heads off to the mountains to study cooking at “Kobayashidera” while Irene follows a lead to find her mother in Shanghai.

The day of the big challenge comes and Hong arrives, with Irene’s father in tow! His Celestial parents come down having found Red Boy at last, and we are all reunited with our families. Irene and Hong get each other, Dragon Lee and Chinese pop star Christina live happily ever after.

What I very much enjoyed about the show was the music, which was very catchy and ear-wormy. I’ve been singing “Ore koso God of Stars” on a loop in my head since watching it, replaced from time to time with ”Eien no Kirameki,” I think was the title of this show’s version of the word “love” on repeat. (“Ai shinjite, Ai wo mitsumete Ai wo yume mite…”)

The revue portion, which did not seem very long when I watched it live, did drag a bit. Kurenai Yuzuru does not dance, really, not even the “spin-and-pose” style that passes for dancing most of the time in Takarazuka. She merely stands and moves her arms a bit. It was not inspiring, but I had ceased to watch her much anyway, in favor of Makoto Rei, who played Dragon Lee.

The DVD has one bizarre technical glitch in the revue portion during a rendition “That’s Life” by three of the otokoyaku. The glitch, in which the singer’s mics cut out,  appears to be from the actual show, because you can hear the singers from time to time, barely behind the music. It is bizarre because they left it in and didn’t just use a different performance for the Blu-Ray.  As it was “That’s Life” I didn’t count it much of a loss. ^_^;

Still absolutely outstanding were the performances by both Makoto Rei as Dragon Lee and Maisora Hitomi as Christina Chang.

My wife had not joined us for the show in Japan, but after our raves, she joined me for this viewing. Her verdict was “It was cute. I enjoyed it.” which is all I can ask.

Ratings:

Staging: 8 Less moving parts than usual, but still, the scenery was super fun.
Story – 9 Who wouldn’t like a story about a celestial being reincarnated on earth as an Iron chef?!?
Music – 8 Loads of fun, well sung, and this time, for the first show I have ever seen…written by a woman.
Dancing – 8 Bits of it were fantastic, just not the bits done by Kurenai

Overall – 9

I have now seen in person Takarazuka performances set in France, Austria, China and Singapore. Let’s talk about “exotic places” as common fantasy theme for women.

This BD is a terrific reminder of a terrific night and for all the everythings Takarazuka can bring to the table, I highly recommend GOD of STARS. 

Once again, I found myself standing in the Takarazuka Tokyo Theater gift shop, surrounded by riches of useless excess, and thinking, “I have to get something.” But there’s so much and I so don’t follow any star or troupe, that its often hard to decide! And this was before we saw God of Stars, after which we were motivated to go back and buy stuff.*

Then I saw a title and show that intrigued me. Clan of Poe is a well-known manga by BL pioneer and “Magnificent 49er,” Moto Hagio, that is out now as a deluxe set from Fantagraphics, with translation by Rachel Thorn. And so I ended up returning home with a Takarazuka DVD for this classic BL story as a musical, Poe no Ichizoku (ポーの一族). (It is also available on Blu-ray.)

Edgar Portsnel and his sister Marybell are abandoned by their father, and they are discovered in the woods by Hannah Poe who, Edgar discovers, is a “vampanella.” The story is Edgar’s evolution from naive waif to uncaring alpha vampire. Played by Asumi Rio, Edgar was annoying as fuck as a waif and did a lot of obligatory self-loathing when he and Marybell became vampanellas, but the less he cared about the humans around him, the better a character he was. ^_^ Edgar and Marybell meet Alan Twilight, played extremely well by Yuzuka Rei, who comes to love Marybell, until she is killed and he confronts his family about some whiny stupid thing then runs into Edgar’s hungry waiting arms. After which they both return to the boy’s school they had attended. I very much enjoyed how they looked at the boys around them like I do the menu at a restaurant. ^_^

Okay, so the story is not for me, obviously. I would have preferred to see Marybell run off with John’s wife (a thing she gets close to, which is why he shoots her.)  But as vampire BL goes, this wasn’t bad. It was violent, and the vampires were creepy and manipulative, both physically and emotionally, so you couldn’t really ever like any of them. But Alan and Edgar get a nice pas de deux or two and hold hands during the finale, so I guess that’s what pays the bills. ^_^ My money goes on the manager of the Hotel Blackpool (which I still think ought to have been named Whitby,) Tatsuki Mio, I believe. She was lovely.

I will say that both music and dancing, (despite being set in Europe of the imagination) were less stodgy than older shows, much as I found with God of Stars. So a new generation of composers and choreographers have made a positive impact on me, which is nice.

Ratings:

Music – 8
Story – 9 If you like BL, it was super fun
Characters – 8 Alan was the standout
BL – 6 Vampirey seductive stuff via Takarazuka filter

Overall – 8

What did I think of Poe no Ichizoku?

Edgar was no Allen Poe,
But it’s hard to give it a hard no.
I wasn’t sure what I thought,
but my attention was caught
By the attractive manager in the bow (tie).

*I ended up buying a multi-pack of clear files, some of which will end up in Lucky Boxes and a Suica card case on a retractable cord, which was really helpful. I liked the other deign better, but the one I got was more useful.

Here is a poster of Asumi Rio and Yuzuka Rei as Edgar(in the chair) and Allen (leaning) for you to enjoy. Good smouldering on Edgar’s part.

We’re finishing up Takarazuka Week here on Okazu with the reason we started in the first place – the iconic all-female revue troupe is performing Kander and Ebb’s Chicago at Lincoln Center in New York City. There are still three shows, two today and one tomorrow and if you are near, in or can get to New York City, absolutely, definitely go see this show.

It was fantastic.

Not kitschy funny. Fantastic. The performers were stellar.

Because the group performing are all retired, (an OG group) they have a rotating cast. We saw Saki Asaji as Billy Flynn, Natsuki Mizu as Velma Kelly, Yuga Yamato as Roxie Hart, and Jun Hatsukaze as Mama Morton.

Natsuki Mizu, holy crap was she good.

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I have had a theory for years, that the dancers of Takarazuka are all exceptionally talented, but that their choreographers are just not very good. Its not that they are bad, per se, but watching them dance, using the same repertoire of moves over and over, I feel like I’m watching dancing routines created by a really talented high school student. My theory was wholly confirmed last night as the ladies of Takarazuka absolutely KILLED Bob Fosse’s choreography. And if you know anything about Fosse’s work, you know he demands a high level of physicality and sensuality from the dancers.

The New York Times article on the show had this to say:

Gary Chryst, a Broadway veteran who supervises dance for the licensed foreign shows of “Chicago,” spent a month drilling the cast before its run, which also includes several weeks of performances in Japan. Even for male roles, the “feminine” and “feline” choreography in Bob Fosse’s original staging works in Takarazuka’s favor, he said. Bringing out the musical’s cynical tone was harder. Takarazuka’s performers aren’t accustomed to playing women who blatantly “use sex to get what they want,” he said.

Takarazuka has been providing an idealized image of silver screen Hollywood in the 1920s for 100 years to audiences.  How, I wondered, would they do showing reprehensible people doing terrible things with no regret? This a story of greed and corruption and manipulation.

They did great. ^_^

After Chicago completed, to our delight, they did a retrospective revue portion, with songs and costumes that really gave you a sense of the Takarazuka’s history, with a 50s style mambo, to “Roxanne” sung by a singer in a stunning pimpin’ purple outfit, to “That’s Life” Las Vegas style and finishing up with a classic rendition of “Sumire no Hana no Sakukoro.”

But…we were going to get what we were all waiting for? YES! All three of the leads took their final bow in shiny tuxedo and feathers. The audience was obviously ready and waiting for this, because the roar was deafening.

The other thing I really wanted to pay attention to was the audience. Who was coming? What were they looking for?

What I found was a nice slice of New York life, with a lot of younger people in the audience (a lot of beautiful young people. Sheesh, New York, how do you do that?) The man sitting behind us had seen Takarazuka in the 1960s in Japan, and loved them. And for once, when I wanted desperately to jump to my feet and scream with applause, I could! That’s always so trying watching a show in Japan. They never scream wildly. But last night the audience roared with approval. It was great.

Before I wrap up here, I want to point you to a couple of amazing articles on the Lincoln Center website that you should totally read:

Portrait of a Superfan: Takarazuka Revue
Interview by Madeline Rogers

10 Things to Know about the Takarazuka Revue by Ryan Wenzel

Takarazuka: A History by Jennifer Robertson

I’ve never seen Lincoln Center put out the welcome mat in such a huge way, and New York has really jumped up with open arms and embraced Takarazuka. I hope we’ll be able to see many more shows here.

Ratings:

Everything – 10

Seriously, if you can get there today or tomorrow, get there! There are still tickets available and it is an experience of a lifetime.

I want to thank Bruce, Donna, Serge, (the original group that saw Elizabeth with me!) Rica, Sumika, James and my wife for joining me in this fantastic adventure.

I think I’ll change my motto here on Okazu, “Come for the low culture, stay for the high culture!”