Getting tickets to a live Takarazuka performance is one of the great gambles of the universe. It could be breathtakingly fabulous, as was my first experience, Elizabeth, or it could be dire, or anywhere in between. But regardless of whether the show is itself good, the spectacle is always entertaining. It was for the spectacle I wanted a Takarazuka show to be part of the 100 Years of Yuri Tour.

We had been informed that tickets for this show were incredibly difficult to get. Ultimately, we learned that both lead otokoyaku, Kurenai Yuzu was retiring after this performance, and this was one of the last performances for the top musumeyaku, Kisaraki Airi, as well. As a result, it was a miracle we got tickets at all. It was so worth it. God of Stars / Éclair Brillant  was an amazing show, good enough that I’ll totally get it when it comes out on disc.

To begin with the story was ridiculous and fun. We meet a celestial being Red Boy, the God of Stars, who is beloved in heaven in an opening number extravaganza.

Then, suddenly, we’re in Singapore in the present, watching an Iron Chef-like show, the star of which is obviously a reincarnated Red Boy. Hong Xing-Xing is the masterchef of the show, with a grand plan to uproot the small restaurants of a dockside area. He’s attacked on the set by Eileen Chow, a tomboy who loves cooking, but can’t herself cook. Hong storms off and the sponsor decides that he’s a liability, so sets him up for a fall, by implicating him in a crime. Hong finds himself bankrupt and alone in Eileen’s section of town. Together they decide to rehabilitate Hong’s reputation with a cooking contest between Hong and the new master chef Dragon Lee.

And then the story gets weird. ^_^

Both Hong and Eileen have absentee parents. With help, Eileen tracks down her mother, who has become a famous architect in Shanghai, and Hong, while studying Buddhist vegetarian cuisine at a mountain temple (with the name 小林寺, Kobayashidera, for a fabulous visual pun on Shaolin Temple’s name,) discovers Eileen’s father. Hong’s own celestial parents arrive to watch the final contest with Lee. And we all live happily ever after. Of course.

I cannot express how fantastic the show was. Funny in all the right places, the excess of Takarazuka really worked to this show’s advantage. Kurenai Yuzu and Kisaraki Airi had good energy, but were not particularly sexy together. Makoto Rei was STUNNING as Dragon Lee and we all enjoyed the heck out of Maisora Hitomi as Christine Chang, the top Hong Kong singer.

There was a surprising variety of musical numbers, from boy band hysteria and Christine’s HK idol song, to larger more ebullient full-stage numbers, like God Of Stars, and the inevitable love duet between Hong and Eileen. They were all good numbers, a few of them incredibly catchy.

This was followed by the revue portion of the show, Éclair Brillant, with its typical glittery fabulousness. It apparently “portrays a young man who floats down from space to earth, and sings and dances across the globe.” I did not get that from the revue itself, but can certainly understand that that’s what I saw, now that I read it. ^_^

The final song was the usual repetition of the word “love” 7000 times and was so sticky, I ended up singing it for a week, so that was pleasantly irritating. ^_^

Ratings:

Music – 8 Really good
Story – 10 It was so over the top
Characters – 10 Every character was perfect
Yuri – 1 Yes, Hong and Eileen get together, but the actresses had no real sexual tension. Nonetheless, they were so wonderful as their roles, I really can’t ding them.

Overall – 9

An incredible show, with stellar performances, and fantastic contemporary musical numbers and a classic Takarazuka revue portion. I recommend it highly.

After the show was over, and although we were all ravenously hungry, we stuck around to watch the actresses come out and address their fan clubs. It was really quite sweet.

This one I’m sharing because of the general fabulousness of the presentation.