Passion of the Mills part 2: dance Mcarthur Dance

While wandering ( and mostly pottering) through Japan's many train stations, subway spots and what not I'd often see mysterious posters advertising what looked like an all female theatre troupe, I'd wondered what they actually were but thought that like most things I see in Japan it would just be one of the many things that go over my head, like Kanamara Matsuri a festival that I'm faaarrr too polite to link to (but can be easily found on the Internet by those brave enough (and probably not at work).
So anyway after our night out at the fancy pants Hilton (official name) we boarded an equally fancy pants train and headed over to the fancy pants Takarazuka which was... well fancy pants..

Takarazuka the places is a strange mix of styles, English tea shops with Mediterranean style apartment blocks dotted amongst traditional Japanese houses, large green bridges cross walkways flanked by equally green Japanese hills; but I'm no Jonathan Meads, because if I was I'd be far more interesting (and really do your self a big favour and watch some Jonathan Meads) . Annyyway after walking through the town we came upon the actual Takarazuka grand theatre and yes it is grand indeed inside and out, it kind of looks like a fairy tale castle (which I suppose is the point) with sweeping red stairs, golden chandeliers and possibly the most number of gift shops I'Ve ever seen in one place. Sadly with my new computer up and running my old phone can no transfer pictures so you will have to put up with this picture from the internet.
Now, I should really tell you what Takarazuka theatre actually is, although bare with me as I actually didn't know much about it till this week, but since doing some research (well wikipedia is research isn't it?) its basically an all female musical theatre troupe that have been around for close to 100 years putting on musicals, dance numbers and plays. It's actually got a really interesting history with the Japanese public and their reaction to an all female cast...actually its probably far more insightful (and better written) if you read this or this or this

finished?

Good then I'll continue. The audience milling around the theater are probably about 80 percent female, aged between 30 and 70 (I did see a lot of dyed purple hair around) although this did mean no queues for the toilet hurrar, oh and I've never seens so many gift shops, selling everything from chocolates to special takarazuka water (which I like to think tastes of water). I actually had no idea what our performances was about but surely this poster suggests good things

So we take our seats in the high balcony, and the play opens; there's Japan war torn and ruined with people wandering the streets, American soldiers (you can tell they're American as they wear shades) pushing people around as the Japanese government staggeraround, oh wait there's General Mcarthur, leader of the allied forces in Japan a tough, mean pipe smoking soldier and then, then.. suddenly he starts performing a full on dance number complete with a backing of soldiers, twirls and singing... So I sit there open mouthed as soldiers and government officials pull of a dance/fight number amongst the ruined buildings.

I've never been opened mouthed at something this long but it was about ten minutes into the production where I stopped looking like this

After this initial "surprise" the play settles down somewhat with only the occasional burst of song and dance (although the part where the soldiers wear matching silver uniforms and dance around in glitter kind of stood out). It all came over like a cross between westside story and The world at war, just with more glitter. The whole thing never lost my interested and my Japanse is okay enough (actually non existent) to kind of understand it. Of course it didn't matter a jot in the second half which is a giant musical number all centred around the theme "passion" (which meant some reason passion in the desert, passion in tuxes, passion with lots of ostrich feathers ect ect. ) I presume they also had some sort of bet on how many actual lights they could put onto stage at one time and not burn out our eyes (just) But it was all kinds of awesome (if by awesome you count musical theatre) to see dozens and dozens of dancers and singers descending the largest stairs ever to grace musical theatre (true fact)

It's kind of hard to describe the show as its kind of "and then he shouted, and then he danced a bit, he shouted some more, oh and ten he did a nice twirl" so just take my word for it or better yet wander down one day and ch ch check it out.

Sadly you can't find the show on Youtube (or if you can please tell me) but these clips might just give you an incling to what I'm attempting to talk about