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The Takarazuka Revue (宝塚歌劇団 Takarazuka Kagekidan) began in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan in 1913 founded by Ichizo Kobayashi and had their first performance in 1914.

The president of Hankyu Railways was trying to find a way to boost sales, and began staging Western-style musical shows using only young, unmarried women. By 1924 the company had become popular and got their own theatre, the Dai Gekijō. Currently the Takarazuka shows gather an audience which totals at 2.5 million per year. Most fans of the group are women.

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 member 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 restablished in 1948. The newest troupe, Cosmos, was founded in 1998.

Categories of Musical they perform

There are two main categories of the musicals performed by the revue:

One is adapted from Western classic musicals, operas, novels or even films, and here are the lists:

But they also adopt the story of popular Japanese manga for their shows:

Another are the stories adopted from Japanese history and Chinese history, like the romance between General Hong Yu and his lover Madam Yu (It became Farewell My Concubine in Northern Chinese Opera stream).

Beside, they have adapted the life of some famous people like F. Scott Fitzgerald (for a self-produced musical Last Party: S. Fitzgerald's last day)and James Dean (Simply refer as Dean)

They also have their very own creation: one of the examples is Boxman: I can crack any kind of safe by Cosmo Troupe in 2004 and Silver Wolf performed by Moon and Snow Troupes

Cultural phenomenon

The troupe's existence sometimes comes up as a kind of fetish in the yuri fandom community. It also appeared to inspire the Sakura Wars series.

Personnel

The current top stars of each group are:

Group otokoyaku musumeyaku
Special Course Yū Todoroki Asuka Tōno
Flower Sumire Haruno Ayane Sakurano
Moon Jun Sena Kanami Ayano
Snow Hikaru Asami Rira Maikaze
Star Wataru Kozuki Yuri Shirahane
Cosmos Kei Takashiro Rui Shijō
The youngest member to ever serve on the board of directors
The youngest member of Special Course up-to-date
Former otokoyaku, changed to musumeyaku in 2002

Former Takarasiennes

Takarazuka roster members who went on to become actresses on stage, movies and television: ||
otokoyaku musumeyaku

References

External links

Japanese theater | Japanese musicals | Musical theatre | Theatre companies

宝塚歌劇団 | 寶塚歌劇團

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Takarazuka Revue".

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