[ssba]
Takarazuka!!!
Reviewed by Vanessa Cate
East West Players
Through Dec. 7
Founded in 1913 in a hot springs resort in Japan, Takarazuka is an all-women’s school and performance troupe that not only militantly trains women to be “good wives and wise mothers,” but puts on lavish Western-style musicals with females playing the roles of both genders. Upon successful acceptance, students are assigned their secondary gender, which they must perfect on and off stage. They study the kata (form) of that gender in order to perfect it. Women who play men are known as otokoyaku. Everything from their walk to their voice must be male, but they are simultaneously shrouded in glamour.
Susan Soon He Stanton’s Takarazuka!!! is not affiliated with the school and revue in Japan. Rather, it is a meditation on identity, power and love, directed by Leslie Ishii.
Stanton’s play is set in 1975. Yuko (performed simultaneously by Fiona Cheung and Janelle Toyomi Dote) is at the top of her game, an otokoyaku who has reached superstar status and is considered “the perfect man” by droves of squealing fans. However, Yuko knows that she must retire – as all women of Takarazuka must – before she passes her prime.
For her final performances, she revels in the power she has found in being a man. She connects with Chifumi (Grace Yoo), a younger musumeyaku, or woman who plays women’s roles. Together the two have become a star couple on the stage. Chifumi seems to be searching for more meaning to their relationship, as well as struggling to deal with the impermanence of her youth and glory.
Meanwhile, British filmmaker Nigel Parker (Joseph Lim Kim) has come to Japan to make a documentary exploring the Takarazuka review from a Western mindset. This serves as an adequate device to elicit information from the characters we might not otherwise receive.
The subject matter is fascinating, the writing thoughtful and elegant, and the costumes by June Suepunpuck, divine. However, the premise proves more thrilling than the execution, as bland staging and slow pacing diminishes the energy. These characters are supposed to be some of Japan’s biggest stars of the stage – and they are equipped with a gorgeous set by Tesshi Nakagawa (including the infamous grand staircase well-known by Takarazuka fans), yet their rendition of the famed performances are underwhelming. Choreography by Cindera Che is often timid, though a tango number is a highlight. At the same time, the moments where we should see the characters’ vulnerability are not quite real enough. This show would benefit from taking a cue from the real Takarazuka, and embracing its the larger-than-life theatricality.
Adding to the drawbacks, the filmmaker, even with complete access to such an intriguing world, never really completes his film or does anything with his documentary footage; instead, he just disappears. And having two Yukos is perplexing – Is one a ghost? Is one the incarnation of all otokoyakus that have come before? The open-ended reality may have been intentional, but the muddy direction, combined with the fact that most of the cast plays multiple roles, leaves confusion in its wake. This, and the unexplored history of Takarazuka, along with the un-probed complexity of the relationships within the group, compound the lost opportunities.
However, the play has moments of triumph. Witnessing the loss of Yuko’s voice as she returns to the life of a woman is devastating to watch. And the reflections of an Old Man (Michael Hagiwara) that shift the spectrum of gender-bound expectations and desires, if only for a moment, are as poignant and delicate as the hana (flowers) which the members of Takarazuka attempt to emulate.
East West Players, David Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts, 120 Judge John Aiso Street, Little Tokyo; Wed.-Sat. 8 p.m.; Sun. 2 p.m.; through Dec. 7. (213)-625-7000, www.eastwestplayers.org
