[ENG SUB] Cinderella The Musical (2008)
Nov. 24th, 2022 07:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Summary: An all-female production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella performed by the idol group Morning Musume in collaboration with Takarazuka Revue, directed by Takarazuka’s very own Sakai Sumio and starring Morning Musume members Takahashi Ai as Cinderella and Niigaki Risa as the Prince. Former Hoshigumi top star Asaji Saki plays the fairy godmother and former Hanagumi top star Aika Mire plays the stepmother, among other Takarasiennes in this musical.
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My review of the musical, some background on Takarazuka’s relationship with Morning Musume, and translator’s notes below. Special thank you to
sonofgodzilla for proofing, editing, and being my extremely helpful Morning Musume guide!
Overall Impressions I've never heard anyone talk about this production before I found out about it myself but I never thought Takarazuka would collaborate with an idol group. I was never too familiar with Morning Musume, but I love Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella so naturally I bought a DVD copy the moment I discovered this existed. Especially since I love fairytales and fairytale type shows are quite a rare thing in Takarazuka, as that would require a musumeyaku to be the main character *cough*.
So having done minimal research before watching, I didn't exactly know what to expect, however I was pleasantly surprised! This is a proper high quality full-scale production. There's a live orchestra, a big stage, flying wires and everything. I guess that’s to be expected of the number 1 idol group in Japan at the time. Two giant forces of the entertainment industry collaborating was probably a big deal too. The Morning Musume girls gave their all for this performance and I thought they were really cute, they’re a very talented group of girls. I believe they were pretty young when they performed this, which I think is always suitable for the very youthful Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. My favorite productions of this musical are usually ones performed by youths (Brandy was 18 when she starred in the 1997 film), they convey fairytale magic in a very genuine way. The youngest Morning Musume member in this production at the time was Mitsui Aika, who played one of the fairies at just 15 years old.
It was also a nice rare opportunity to see an all women’s production without ~the zuka makeup~, the Morning Musume girls who played male/otokoyaku roles were allowed to look more feminine which was quite nice to see, though I’m aware this is because they are an idol group whose talents need to be marketed and a large demographic of their fans are men.
I thought there was some nice additions to the plot that enriched a lot of the characters so props to Sakai Sumio for that, but one choice that I found… interesting which was probably out of his control is that Cinderella and the prince did not kiss. Not even a stage kiss in classic Takarazuka style. Not even on the cheek. And I would’ve been fine with this if only the lyrics in A Lovely Night didn’t reference a kiss from the prince. So not having a kiss in the end made the whole thing feel kind of incomplete, unfortunately. I’m told that the reasoning behind this is a complex can of worms about the idol industry re: depicting intimacy between female idols which honestly I don’t think is too far off from the complex can of worms that is the Takarazuka company, but I won’t get into it in this post.
And while I think the sets were pretty and they did have some nice practical effects (they really utilized that flying wire) unfortunately there was no magical dress transformation on stage. Which, you know, is usually what a lot of people look forward to in this musical so just don't get your hopes up. Cinderella just quick-changes off stage. At least her gown is pretty though, very much giving Disney’s 1950 Cinderella.
Overall it's a solid production, and it’s one of the sweetest takes on Cinderella I’ve seen. You also definitely don’t need to know anything about Morning Musume to be able to enjoy this show so don’t let that scare you away.
Takahashi Ai and Morning Musume’s history with Takarazuka 
This musical was no doubt a special experience for the lead actress, Takahashi Ai, as she’s famously known for admiring Takarazuka; even once wanting to become a Takarasienne herself. She previously attended one of those “Takarazuka preparation/training” schools and apparently considered quitting Morning Musume when she was 17 so that she could take the Takarazuka Music School exam (17 was the oldest age you can enroll as a student at the time, I believe it's 18 now). To this day she’s still an avid fan and actively goes to Takarazuka shows, often writing about the theater on her blog.
When she joined Morning Musume, the first song released with her as a member in 2001 was “Mr. Moonlight”, a Takarazuka inspired song with the Morning Musume members taking on otokoyaku-like roles. It’s a super cute and fun song!
They even performed Mr. Moonlight with actual Takarazuka members from Hanagumi and Senka, notably Ranju Tomu (former top star) and Juri Sakiho on the TV program “The God of Entertainment” which was broadcasted in 2003. Apparently Juri Sakiho was so obsessed with Mr. Moonlight that she had the song as her ringtone long before the TV collaboration.
Aside from Cinderella, Morning Musume previously collaborated with Takarasiennes from Senka for a musical adaptation of Ribbon no Kishi (better known among English speakers as 'Princess Knight'), the Osamu Tezuka manga from the 1950s famously known for pioneering the Takarazuka inspired “androgynous beauty” character trope. Takahashi Ai also played the lead in that musical as Princess Sapphire.
So while Takahashi didn't end up going down the path of becoming a Takarasienne, it seems her dreams still came true. This fairytale role of a girl believing in her dreams must've been quite real to her. Seeing her sing "it's possible" to a fairy godmother played by a Takarazuka top star in this musical was quite touching.
Thoughts on The Cast Cinderella as played by Takahashi Ai was very sweet. She’s the relentlessly kind type though and I obviously prefer my Cinderellas to acknowledge she’s being mistreated and have some humor about it, and you know, actually lament her situation. This Cinderella didn’t resent her family in the slightest which made her a bit of a pushover. I don't think it's her fault though, I fault the old man Takarazuka director for the way she's written. You know how old fashioned those old men can be. Takahashi Ai herself was very cute and did perfectly well. She gets really into her acting during the reunion at the end, and no joke it makes me cry every time. Lovely singing voice too.
But what really stood out to me in this production was actually the prince, played by Niigaki Risa. Oh gosh, my heart. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a prince charming so gentle and genuine! She brought so much to the story. The way she portrayed his longing for Cinderella during the slipper search was so heart-wrenching. I didn’t know it was possible to be so emotionally invested in the prince until I watched this production. She was definitely my favorite performer in terms of acting, and I think maybe one of my favorite Prince Christophers ever. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that the voice she uses for the prince is pretty much her natural voice and she does actually sound that deep when she sings, which I guess must be one of the reasons they chose her for this role. I’ve also been made aware that this was right before the time Niigaki Risa left the group and that she’s been waiting quite a while for her chance in the spotlight. You can certainly tell she poured her heart into this performance.
I’ve read that originally Niigaki Risa and Takahashi Ai were supposed to alternate between their Prince and Cinderella roles during this musical’s run, but because of time restraints they ended up not doing it. I would’ve liked to see that though…
On Takarazuka’s side of the cast, I really liked the king, played by Ebira Kaoru. He was so silly and sweet. Her king along with Kou Akemi’s queen really warmed my heart. They were just as gentle and sweet as their son and the way they cared for him felt so real.
And of course, there’s the infamous Asaji Saki fairy godmother. And I have to say, this take on the fairy godmother was a refreshingly new one for me. Asaji Saki plays a very gentle and cute fairy godmother who seems like she has a lot more depth as a character than any other fairy godmother I’ve seen. Usually, the sassy fairy godmother does the whole “impossible” spiel to get Cinderella to realize that it is in fact, not impossible, like she’s testing or encouraging her. But this fairy godmother is genuinely reluctant about doing magic herself, which stems from her protectiveness over Cinderella (which is very sweet) and perhaps something a little more personal, like she’s lost her own confidence in magic. And so what ends up happening is that Cinderella is the one who convinces the fairy godmother that it’s not impossible.
I really like how they emphasized the godmother and Cinderella's father’s (past) relationship and made it feel like it had some actual importance here. There are these little moments here and there that imply their past and there’s always a certain look/reaction to Asaji Saki’s fairy godmother whenever Cinderella brings up her father. It was to the point that I wondered if the fairy godmother could’ve had romantic feelings for him (which reminds me of the Lilac Fairy and the father in Jacques Demy’s ‘Donkey Skin’). I think it’s also implied that the fairy godmother could’ve been Cinderella’s real mother, though personally I’d like it better if that weren’t the case.
Also for those of you who have never heard Asaji Saki’s natural voice, just like with Niigaki Risa you’ll find that it’s almost no different from her otokoyaku voice. Which I’d posit is among some of the deepest voices in Takarazuka. What’s funny though is that she’s probably not used to singing any higher than she did for the past how many years in her otokoyaku career (understandably), so it felt like she struggled with some high notes at times. But don’t worry, Asaji Saki gets to show off her full potential in this show when she goes full on otokoyaku in the finale.
Aika Mire, who played the stepmother, looked like she had a lot of fun doing this. Apparently she continued to do special events/shows with Morning Musume even after this musical, which I think is very sweet. After the encore when everyone gives their little speeches, the Takarasiennes talk about Morning Musume as if they were their own daughters, which was very cute. Aika Mire’s “daughters” in the show, Cinderella’s stepsisters played by Tanaka Reina (Joy) and Kamei Eri (Portia) were also pretty fun to watch. I like that they were just straight up mean and horrible. Cinderella is prone to ye olde misogyny when it comes to the “ugly” stepsisters, usually with fatphobia or transphobia (many Cinderella ballets have cis men play the stepsisters), so I appreciate it when they emphasize that the stepsisters are just ugly on the inside (though again, I’m aware this is also because they’re idols.) Them being young really helped too because they got pretty annoying at times. In particular I really enjoyed whenever Tanaka Reina was on stage. She went on to do more musical work later in her career, and during my research I found out that she’s the actress who plays Rin (Riliane) in the Daughter of Evil musical adaptation. I’m sensing a pattern to her type of roles lol…
I also noticed that the girls who played the two pages had a bit of an accent, and later found out they’re played by MM members LinLin and JunJun who are Chinese (and are from Mainland China) and apparently the only two members in Morning Musume history who aren’t Japanese. I was happy to see some diversity, they only had one line each in the show but I’m glad they still gave that to them and didn’t think that it would “ruin the musical”.
Final Thoughts I think this Takarazuka x Morning Musume collaborative show is a wonderful and precious production. I feel like there's been a good amount of love and care put into it. The translation and adaptation work was also really impressive. And well, it’s Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, what’s not to love? I subbed everything until the encore and I highly recommend watching all the after show stuff/finale. The idol girls perform some of their own songs as Morning Musume and Aika Mire and Asaji Saki perform some Rodgers and Hammerstein's tunes with the other Takarazuka members. It was really cool to see both groups of women in their element and see pop music performances and classical theater performances right after another on the same stage. And in classic Takarazuka audience fashion, it seems that even the idol fans have learnt to (silently) clap along to the beat for the zuka performances to cheer on the siennes. Isn’t that fun?
Though I must admit it was a bit jarring to hear the idol fans in the audience yell inside of a theater to cheer on the idols. But what I find really funny is that they started doing it for the Takarasiennes as well. The Takarasiennes who, understandably, were not used to that, responded with a “thank you” each time. I thought that was very sweet of the idol fans.
I don’t know if there have been any more collaborations between idol groups and Takarazuka like this but they should do this again, I think bringing two unlikely demographics together like this creates world peace lol.
Translator’s Notes 
There’s a very gender essentialist, very typical of a Takarazuka director line at this timestamp 1:57:54. I tweaked it a bit so it didn’t come off that way in my subtitles. What they actually said was just “boy” and “girl”. ボンバー（ヘッド）’bomba(heddo)’ or 'bomber head' is slang for “explosively” messy or frizzy hair. Not a very common word these days, I don’t think. I tried to make it so that Portia messed up the saying “Preaching to deaf ears” In most versions of R&H’s Cinderella, Portia tries to impress the prince at the ball by reciting poetry. Here, Portia messes up a famous phrase often used in rakugo, a form of traditional Japanese storytelling.寝ては夢、起きてはうつつまぼろしの・・・
Nete wa yume, okite wa utsutsu maboroshi no…
Some context for when the royal butler says ”I don’t know anything about the hierarchy of your group”, I’m told that the joke is that Kusumi Koharu (the herald), despite being younger, surpassed the popularity of Tanaka Reina (Joy), who was practically a senior member in Morning Musume at the time. Sources https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/25c4b742aa2268c84738fb571fe94e064cea5fcd
http://sayurimav.blog.jp/archives/5264739.html
https://ameblo.jp/kantyounikki/entry-12120905821.html
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Date: 2022-11-24 08:19 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2022-11-24 09:16 am (UTC)thank you for your hard work, looking forward to watching this :)
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Date: 2022-11-24 05:16 pm (UTC)i hope you enjoy the musical~!
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Date: 2022-12-02 01:32 am (UTC)Oh that's lovely, the one I grew up with was the 1997 film starring Brandy and I have very sentimental feelings towards it as well x) I think every version has their own special charm and magic to them so I love them all! If I'm not mistaken the 1965 film is when they first included the Prince's song "Loneliness of Evening", which is one of my favorite songs so I'm really happy that they included it in this production! ^^
I'm glad people are agreeing about Niigaki Risa's performance, she really was such a heartfelt prince and she was so understanding of his character. I hope you enjoy the rest of the show and again thanks so much for commenting!