I have always heard positive things about the Takarazuka Revue in the past. However, as someone who has never attended live entertainment in foreign countries, I do have to wonder: for someone who is primarily an English-speaker and only has rudimentary-at-best Japanese language skills, is the Takarazuka Revue still worth doing?
I’ve seen conflicting reports online that for some shows, English-language translators were available; however, I definitely don’t expect this to be the case. Assuming that there is no live translation going on, I’m worried about essentially only being able to ‘see’ the show and therefore not fully being able to enjoy it due to not actually understanding what is going on.
Has anyone here who doesn’t speak Japanese attended a performance in the past? If so, how was your experience?
5 comments
It’s funny you should say that considering all the negative news about it recently (tl;dr performer was overworked, stressed and committed suicide)
I saw them once in New York years ago and was fascinated (performance was subtitled). Watching for other answers!
It was like going to see a regular musical but I couldn’t understand the show. Mine didn’t have subtitles unfortunately and I think they usually don’t. But still, I love musicals so it was a lot of fun but it is pretty long compared to regular musicals. There are two shows in one so it’s nice to see two instead of just one. Second part is like a cabaret usually. If you like musicals, go.
It was like going to see a regular musical but I couldn’t understand the show. Mine didn’t have subtitles unfortunately and I think they usually don’t. But still, I love musicals so it was a lot of fun but it is pretty long compared to regular musicals. There are two shows in one so it’s nice to see two instead of just one. Second part is like a cabaret usually. If you like musicals, go.
I went to the Grand Theater in May and I loved it! We saw Lilac: Pride of the Droizen Family, with a Paris themed revue. There are plot descriptions on the Japanese version of their website that I read before the show started. Of course you miss a lot of detail, but with my basic Duolingo level Japanese skills I was able to follow along with the gist of it. I have been a casual fan of them for a while though so seeing a show was one of my main reasons for going to Japan in the first place. You can still enjoy the dancing, costumes, sets, and voices without understanding the words! The second act is a revue that is centered around a theme rather than having a plot, so you don’t really miss too much there.
I ended up getting tickets from okepi.net (ticket swap site) the night before and just met a lady in the theater lobby with an envelope of cash lol. The ticket proxies I reached out to were insane (wanted like $400 for a $100 ticket).
It is unfortunate and very sad about the recent tragedy. I understand if that makes you decide not to go. But after reading the investigative reports and the company’s response about the changes they are making, I personally would feel ethically ok to go to see a show again.