Wow busy weekend!!

So busy that I'm actually going to split it into two posts--one now, and one later in the week when I have the pictures from it uploaded.  Right now I am going to talk about Takarazuka.

Takarazuka, as a brief introduction, is often compared to Broadway.  It's musical theater, lots of dancing and singing and all that, and they do all sorts of stories and styles within it.  The big thing is, every single person on stage is female.  They start training by getting into a very selective elite training academy for high school (which really means they've been training since forever, because otherwise how would you be good enough to get into a really incredibly selective academy??  From what I hear, this place makes the Ivy league look doable).  While training, they basically take one of two paths--musumeyaku, girl roles, or otokoyaku, boy roles.  They learn one or the other pretty much exclusively, and you can see the difference between the styles on stage.  At some point they join one of the five different troupes and put on plays with their troupe.  They're very good.

Now the theater.  This is one of two theaters in which Takarazuka is performed.  (The other is in Tokyo.)  It's a normal stage, but with a bridge around the outer edge of the orchestra pit that acts as an extension of the stage, and also two bridges that go out into the audience along the sides, which seem to serve as both part of the stage and entry/exit points.  There are crazy sets and a revolving floor and raising and lowering platforms and all sorts of lights everywhere and disco balls and crazy special effects considering it's a live performance. 

The specific play we saw was essentially "The Man in the Iron Mask".  Set in France during the reign of Louis XIV, it involves the Three Musketeers running around, wreaking havoc, and switching the king with his much nicer identical twin Philip.  Also some romance in there, some fight scenes, and some rather crazy interludes.

For example, the play started with a narrator introducing the era and explaining the background.  Only he got it wrong the first couple times.  He introduced Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution....then Joan of Arc....then a couple more historical figures....all of whom told him he wasn't in the right time....and then finally got to the right thing.  XD  Then it proceeded to be serious for a while, mostly showing how King Louis was a womanizing jerk--except this involved elaborate dances with dresses that could stand on their own so the women could dance out of them, not to mention a dramatic sword fight involving at least 20-25 people in a cafe to introduce the Three Musketeers.  Another interlude scene was set in a jail.  I'm pretty sure it was supposed to show what a cruel government Louis had running, but honestly, by the time it suddenly started playing the 'Ghostbusters' theme song halfway through', it was already clear it was a comedic scene.  Another scene involved a woman hanging from the ceiling, literally wearing a giant disco ball as a skirt as she sang. 

The show itself was really cool.  They did everything from on-stage costume shifts to shadow puppets to court dances to dramatic death scenes to marriage proposals to completely changing outfits in the 5 seconds they were off stage.  And this was only the first hour and a half!

The play basically finished in the first half of the show.  Then there was intermission.  After that, a really amazing, almost variety show-like work was performed.  It was literally a dozen dance scenes, each with its own costumes and plot, all very loosely based around the theme of 'American'.  (It was called Royal Straight Flush and I think poker is associated with America here.)  One was a Miss World contest, another basically acting out the Vietnam War (hippies and all), another essentially West Side Story set in the Old West, another about Las Vegas, another literally people taking on the roles of the 10-Jack-Queen-King-Ace of Spades, another full of people dressed as indians dancing around.  Despite some stereotyping and really interesting attempts at singing in English, it was incredibly fun to watch.  The shifting scenes, incredible costumes (HOW MANY SEQUINS CAN YOU PUT ON ONE COAT), fifty people dancing in perfectly choreographed unison, singing, stylized battles, stylized romances, and just general over-the-top-ness is more than I can put into words.

And then the Grand Finale came.  If I'd thought the rest was crazy, this was even more so.  There were probably close to 100 people on stage--the whole troupe--all wearing crazy sequined costumes and dancing around.  The people who had played main roles were wearing essentially peacock tails (in shape, not color--the colors were black and white) made out of dyed ostrich feathers, with sparkly strands mixed in, that stuck up higher than their heads and as wide as their armspans.  There were bows, and dancing, and more bows, and swirling spotlights, and colorful lights all over, and more dancing, and finally the main peoples' bows.  They had some of the troupe dancing in the aisles by the audience for a while.  It was over-the-top insanely amazing.  Like, really mind-blowing. 

This was my Sunday afternoon, guys.