Dream of Takarazuka: 34 & 35
Apr. 5th, 2018 06:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ekusudei[ Dream of Takarazuka table of contents ]
34 ~*~ 'Bwother!'
This performance was a comedy, so other than Pei-san it was full of oddballs. Firstly, Kishi-san (Kishi Kaori) played my henchman.
She was making a special appearance from Senka, emerging on stage all tiny and fluttering in her garish, sparkling gown.
Another one was the female crime syndicate chief played by Mucchan (Tsubasa Yuuki).
She's a larger woman, an otokoyaku, and as if it weren't already enough for the female role to be wearing a sequined dress, she had a huge wig on her head and came out walking like Marilyn Monroe.
Just by existing, these two were odd.
Once they started talking.... There are no words.
* * *
In addition, all my henchmen spoke oddly. (Note: By oddly, I mean they flipped their voices inside out. You could imagine it as something like yodeling.)
This odd voice feels like it has been going on onstage for years, but the audience doesn't really notice.
But for the performers it's an accumulating oddness.
"Aniki! Taihen!" ("Bro! Bad news!") she'd shout, but it was coming from backstage so invariably it turned into "Anipiii!"
"Sorry! I won't do it again!" she'd promise everyday, but then she'd obstinately say: "Anipiii!"
In the script, right after this there's a line: "Kore wa ichiban, nige no itte da ze." ("This is the best way to go!")
But another of the henchmen always turned it into: "Kore wa ichiban, nige no itte daddy."
My assigned role was a nihilistic gangster with an incurable illness.
To have this going on in front of me and to have to say my lines intimidatingly... it was HARD!!!
35 ~*~ The Fun of Closing Night
On the senshuuraku of this show, there came the perfect opportunity to have a joke war.
(Note: The senshuuraku is the last day after a long stretch of rehearsals and performances, and everyone tries their best on this day so they'll have no regrets.
If you wonder what we try so hard at.... Since it's a comedy we want the audience laughing full-throttle, so we use lines different than the script, change our costumes.... It's a day of audience service.
For example, when I think about good senshuuraku, I think of an overflow of jokes.
Therefore, if you only go to see the senshuuraku, you have to be aware that you won't know what the real lines are.
You have to see the show before then, and study up.
This is the correct way to watch the Takarazuka Revue.)
We adlib until we've run dry, and we really wrack our brains, so everything is studded with marvelous jokes.
Otherwise, there's lots of cast members tricking each other, and producing all kinds of unexpected humor without calculation.
This is where, the night before senshuuraku, I spent all night thinking and hatched a plot to trick Boy A.
There's a scene where I rescue a family that's been captured by a bad gang.
Now, when the time comes to run, there's a bit where Boy A shouts, "No! I won't go!" and we argue a bit, then I soothe him and we escape.
But on senshuuraku I said, "Fine, then we'll leave you," and just like that we left him there on stage as we all exited.
Boy A, who was left there alone in dumbfounded amazement, was angry.
But the audience really loved it.
This was what happened on closing night at the Takarazuka Grand Theater.
Boy A had learned his lesson the hard way at the Grand Theater senshuuraku and made sure to tell me insistently, "Please don't leave me behind today," during the closing night at the Tokyo Theater.
"Today's fine, we won't leave you," I replied. Meanwhile, in conspiracy with everyone else, I said, "The exit's this way!" when Boy A went running straight for the middle door that we usually went out through, and the rest of us all ran out the door on stage left instead.
The Tokyo audience really loved poor Boy A all alone in his bewilderment.
After that, it seems that for more than half a year Zuki-chan (Kou Kazuki), who played Boy A, had a distrust of other human beings.
However, she's become an amazing actress, so I figure she's probably recovered.
* * *
And that's how I got through the two and a half months of "The Great Detective Is All Alone" at the Grand Theater and Tokyo Theater, and now I've become a splendid actor that nothing can perturb, right???
34 ~*~ 'Bwother!'
This performance was a comedy, so other than Pei-san it was full of oddballs. Firstly, Kishi-san (Kishi Kaori) played my henchman.
She was making a special appearance from Senka, emerging on stage all tiny and fluttering in her garish, sparkling gown.
Another one was the female crime syndicate chief played by Mucchan (Tsubasa Yuuki).
She's a larger woman, an otokoyaku, and as if it weren't already enough for the female role to be wearing a sequined dress, she had a huge wig on her head and came out walking like Marilyn Monroe.
Just by existing, these two were odd.
Once they started talking.... There are no words.
* * *
In addition, all my henchmen spoke oddly. (Note: By oddly, I mean they flipped their voices inside out. You could imagine it as something like yodeling.)
This odd voice feels like it has been going on onstage for years, but the audience doesn't really notice.
But for the performers it's an accumulating oddness.
"Aniki! Taihen!" ("Bro! Bad news!") she'd shout, but it was coming from backstage so invariably it turned into "Anipiii!"
"Sorry! I won't do it again!" she'd promise everyday, but then she'd obstinately say: "Anipiii!"
In the script, right after this there's a line: "Kore wa ichiban, nige no itte da ze." ("This is the best way to go!")
But another of the henchmen always turned it into: "Kore wa ichiban, nige no itte daddy."
My assigned role was a nihilistic gangster with an incurable illness.
To have this going on in front of me and to have to say my lines intimidatingly... it was HARD!!!
35 ~*~ The Fun of Closing Night
On the senshuuraku of this show, there came the perfect opportunity to have a joke war.
(Note: The senshuuraku is the last day after a long stretch of rehearsals and performances, and everyone tries their best on this day so they'll have no regrets.
If you wonder what we try so hard at.... Since it's a comedy we want the audience laughing full-throttle, so we use lines different than the script, change our costumes.... It's a day of audience service.
For example, when I think about good senshuuraku, I think of an overflow of jokes.
Therefore, if you only go to see the senshuuraku, you have to be aware that you won't know what the real lines are.
You have to see the show before then, and study up.
This is the correct way to watch the Takarazuka Revue.)
We adlib until we've run dry, and we really wrack our brains, so everything is studded with marvelous jokes.
Otherwise, there's lots of cast members tricking each other, and producing all kinds of unexpected humor without calculation.
This is where, the night before senshuuraku, I spent all night thinking and hatched a plot to trick Boy A.
There's a scene where I rescue a family that's been captured by a bad gang.
Now, when the time comes to run, there's a bit where Boy A shouts, "No! I won't go!" and we argue a bit, then I soothe him and we escape.
But on senshuuraku I said, "Fine, then we'll leave you," and just like that we left him there on stage as we all exited.
Boy A, who was left there alone in dumbfounded amazement, was angry.
But the audience really loved it.
This was what happened on closing night at the Takarazuka Grand Theater.
Boy A had learned his lesson the hard way at the Grand Theater senshuuraku and made sure to tell me insistently, "Please don't leave me behind today," during the closing night at the Tokyo Theater.
"Today's fine, we won't leave you," I replied. Meanwhile, in conspiracy with everyone else, I said, "The exit's this way!" when Boy A went running straight for the middle door that we usually went out through, and the rest of us all ran out the door on stage left instead.
The Tokyo audience really loved poor Boy A all alone in his bewilderment.
After that, it seems that for more than half a year Zuki-chan (Kou Kazuki), who played Boy A, had a distrust of other human beings.
However, she's become an amazing actress, so I figure she's probably recovered.
* * *
And that's how I got through the two and a half months of "The Great Detective Is All Alone" at the Grand Theater and Tokyo Theater, and now I've become a splendid actor that nothing can perturb, right???
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