Takarazuka Revue

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The poster of Phantom performed by Cosmos Troups in 2004 (Featuring Youka Wao and Mari Hanafusa.

The Takarazuka Revue (宝塚歌劇団 Takarazuka Kagekidan) began in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan in 1913 founded by Ichizo Kobayashi, the president of Hankyu Railways, who had the idea to boost sales by staging Western-style musical shows using only young, unmarried women. The name of the troupe comes from the Hankyu Takarazuka Line in suburban Osaka. The Revue had their first performance in 1914, and by 1924 the company had become popular and obtained their own theatre, the Dai Gekijō. Currently Takarazuka performs for 2.5 million people per year. Most fans of the group are women.

Part of the novelty of Takarazuka is that all the parts are played by women, like a mirror-image of Kabuki. The women who play male parts are referred to as otokoyaku (literally "male role") and those who play female parts are called musumeyaku (literally "daughter role"). The costume and set designs are incredibly lavish, and the performances are melodramatically emotional.

The company has five main troupes: Hana, Tsuki, Hoshi, Yuki, and Sora (Flower, Moon, Star, Snow, and Cosmos), and one extra troupe, Senka (Superior Members, which also consist of three members of the directors' board of the group) that supplies performers for particular roles to the other troupes as necessary. The Flower and the Moon troupes are the original troupes, founded in 1921. Snow troupe began in 1924. Star troupe was founded in 1931, disbanded in 1939, and reestablished in 1948. The newest troupe, Cosmos, was founded in 1998.

[edit] The troupes

The poster of The Rose of Versailles 2006 performed by Star and Snow Troupe, but also featuring stars from Flower and Moon troupes.

The six troupes of the Takarazuka Revue Base have certain differences of style and material which make each troupe unique.

[edit] Flower Troupe (Hana)

The Flower Troupe is considered the "treasure chest" of otokoyaku. In 2003, 3 out of 5 of the top otokoyaku stars (Sumire Haruno of Flower, Hikaru Asami of Snow and Jun Shibuki of Moon) otokoyaku top stars were from Flower Troupe. Their preformances tend to have larger budgets, with lavish stage and custom design, and tend towards operatic material.

[edit] Moon Troupe (Tsuki)

While it tends to be a home for young preformers (with Yūki Amami, who hadn't reached her seventh year, reaching her top in the 90's), the members of Moon Troupe are also strong singers. The term "Musical Research Department" is occasionally used in articles about the troupe, portraying the troupe's focus on music. Their material tends towards drama and modern musicals.

[edit] Snow Troupe (Yuki)

Snow Troupe is considered the upholder of traditional dance and opera for the whole company, being the vanguard of traditional Japanese drama in a company that tends towards western material. However, they were the first troupe to perform Elisabeth for the company. Recently the troupe has been moving towards the opera and drama style that Moon and Flower perform in.

[edit] Star Troupe (Hoshi)

Star Troupe tends to be the home of the stars of Takarazuka. They, along with Flower Troupe, have very strong otokoyaku players, which is not usually seen in the other troupes.

[edit] Cosmos Troupe (Sora)

Cosmos, the newest troupe of the company, does not have the burden of tradition, and therefore tends to be more experimental. pulls talents from different troupes of the time. The troupe's style is influenced by performers Yōka Wao and Mari Hanafusa. They are the first troupe to perform The Phantom of the Opera, and have a Broadway composer who writes their musical score.

[edit] Categories of musicals they perform

Takarazuka works are usually adapted from Western classic musicals, operas, novels or even films:

The poster of 2003 production of Singin' in the Rain by Star Troupe.

• Novel:
  • Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities
  • Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
  • John Steinbeck's East of Eden
  • Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind
  • Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls
  • Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence
  • Erich Maria Remarque's Arch of Triumph
  • Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina

• Films:
  • Somewhere in Time
  • Farewell My Concubine/The Phantom Lover (Both are films starred the late Leslie Cheung)
  • JFK

• Musical:
  • Singin' in the Rain
  • West Side Story
  • Phantom
  • Ernest in Love (an adaptation of The Importance of Being Ernest)
  • Grand Hotel
  • Aida (Under the name Song of the Kingdom)
  • Elisabeth
  • Guys and Dolls
  • Me and My Girl
  • Copacobana
  • Oklahoma!
  • The Sound of Music
  • How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
  • Flower Drum Song

They also adopt popular Japanese manga for their shows, such as Riyoko Ikeda's The Rose of Versailles, about a young woman named Oscar de Jarjayes who dresses as a man and is a bodyguard for Marie Antoinette, and Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack and Phoenix. Historical stories based on Japanese and Chinese history are popular, like their rendition of the Beijing opera Farewell My Concubine detailing a romance between General Xiang Yu and his lover Madam Yu, , as are biographical adaptions like Last Party: S. Fitzgerald's last day, about F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Dean, about James Dean. Finally, they occasionally create their own stories, seen in Boxman: I can crack any kind of safe by Cosmos Troupe and Silver Wolf performed by Moon and Snow Troupes.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Star Personnel

The poster of Moon Troupe's production of "Ernest in Love" in 2005, featuring Jun Sena Jun and Kanami Ayano as their top star debut.

The current top stars of each group are:

Note 1: The youngest member to ever serve on the board of directors
Note 2: Former otokoyaku, changed to musumeyaku in 2002
Note 3: Will resign from the company in next February after their top-star debute show.

[edit] Other notable stars of the company

Note 4: Will replace Maikaze, who is going to resign with Asami on Christmas eve, as the top star (musumeyaku)
Note 5: Will trasfer to Cosmo in Januray 2007, the next top star (musumeyaku) for Cosmo Troupe after the resigning of Rui Shijō
Note 7: The next top star (otokoyaku) for Snow Troupe after the resigning of Hikaru Asami
Note 8: Will transfer to Flower Troupe on December, 2006
Note 10: The tallest actress in the company
Note 11: Former otokoyaku, switched to musumeyaku in 2004
Note 12: The next top star (otokoyaku) for Cosmos Troupe after the resigning of Kei Takashiro

[edit] Upper and lower classes

The terms upperclassmen (上級生) and lowerclassmen (下級生) are used to distinguish senior and junior members of Takarazuka. Lowerclassmen are the actresses who have been preformers in Takarazuka for less than seven years. They are employees of the company, and usually work as background dancers and participate the New Actor Show. After the seventh year they become upperclassmen, and negotiate contracts with the company instead of being employed by it.

[edit] Former Takarasiennes

Takarazuka roster members who went on to work in stage, movies and television include:

[edit] Influence

Takarazuka has supplied influence for quite a few anime series. The Takarazuka Revue inspired the plot of the original Sakura Wars video game, along with additional inpsiration from Takarazuka's one time Competitor the Shochiku Kagekidan(Shochiku Revue). The Zuka Club in Ouran High School Host Club is based on the Takarazuka Revue. Revolutionary Girl Utena often borrows the visual style of Takarazuka, and Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh of Sailor Moon were loosely based on the actors of the Takarazuka Revue.^[1]

[edit] See also

• Breeches role
• Cross-dressing

[edit] References

• Robertson, Jennifer Ellen (1998). Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan. Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21150-2 (hardcover); ISBN 0-520-21151-0 (paperback).

[edit] External links

• The Official Takarazuka Revue Website—A brief history and information on their shows
• The Takarazuka Wikipedia—An English-language resource for fans of the Revue, featuring the history of Takarazuka, a Takarasiennes database, and performance reviews
• Japanese tradition meets Western musicals — Article on the Takarazuka Revue from the Travel section of The Christian Science Monitor (April 20, 2005).