Cast list:

Der Tod (Death): Shirota Yuu
Elisabeth: Asami Hikaru
Franz Joseph: Ishikawa Zen
Lucheni: Takahashi Masahiro
Rudolf: Mario Tashiro
Sophie: Kotobuki Hizuru

Doubles were for Elisabeth, Ludovika, Sophie and Elisabeth. Triples were Death and Rudolf. But this year, due to insane schedules by a lot of the actors (Urai Kenji, for one, he was in a stage show during the August run), they fixed certain schedules for different characters. The 3 Rudolfs had different months to go on, for example.

Lovely center seats, and basically the only two new characters I saw were effectively Shirota Yuu and Mario Tashiro.

Shirota Yuu as Der Tod
The first time I heard of Shirota Yuu was in TENIMYU. Uh, if any one remembers my review from 2008, in which I watched Irei Kanata as Rudolf, you’ll all know my standards for Tenimyu actors are not particularly high. This musical was no exception; I’ve never particularly been a fan of Shirota, and I swear that half the audience that day were all his fangirls. :’D Anyway, let me get this off my chest: TENIMYU DID HIM NO JUSTICE. He did start off pretty shaky as Death, and I have already been spoiled rotten by the wonder that happens to be a lovely Takeda Shinji (I need to watch him in another musical meeeh!), and his version of ‘Der Letzte Tanz’ was barely mediocre compared to a lot of other Deaths I’ve watched. It lacked this oooompf! effect, unfortunately. However, I am a huge fan of his rendition of Die Schatten Werden Langer (in the first act). Now that, ladies and gentlemen, was something amazing. The other two scenes that I am particularly fond of would be Maladie (Der Letzte Chance), in which his acting was significantly better than the previous half, and Franz Joseph Alptraum. Remember my little flail moment over Takeda’s lovely conducting? While not as awesome, Shirota’s take on this scene was excellent. He could still do a lot with his acting and stage movements (it got a bit boring to watch after a while), but his singing was a lot more impressive than I expected it to be, and I would definitely love to see him in more musicals. Well, for one, I would like to see him paired with Urai Kenji’s Rudolf, it would be extremely interesting since well, I have no idea how they will pull it off. :’D

Asami Hikaru as Elisabeth
I am still not a fan of her voice, although it has improved since I last saw her. I wouldn’t buy a CD with her in it, if that’s what you’re asking me. I still like her portrayal of Elisabeth though, and she was a pretty good pair with Shirota Yuu. I’m still a bit sour that I didn’t get to watch Sena Jun though!

Ishikawa Zen as Franz Joseph
THIS GUY IS STILL AS AMAZING AS EVER. ♥ (I just realized, I’ve already watched him FOUR times since I started heading to Japan on a yearly basis for musicals… xD;)

Takahashi Masahiro as Luceni
AND THIS IS THE OTHER AMAZING ACTOR WHO MAKES THE WHOLE ELISABETH SO DAMN FUN.

Mario Tashiro as Rudolf
And here is my second new change to an otherwise very familiar cast. Mario Tashiro is an excellent singer. There is no denying this. New to the musical scene, I believe (I think I’ve only heard of him doing Blood Brothers and Woman in White so far, he will be in the Fantasticks this year end), he has a lot, a lot to work on, but I think he’s done pretty well as Rudolf, definitely. He had Shirota Yuu had a most fascinating Death/Rudolf relationship, which was extremely evident during the reprise of Schatten. You could totally tell that they tried to bring it across as a ‘Puppet Master and his Puppet’ idea instead of the hot gropey uh HOT Death/Rudolf I am so used to, ahahaha. Not that I’m complaining, because I actually liked it. :Db There was a slight malfunction with his microphone during the first 4 bars of Wenn ich dein Spiegal War, which was a complete WASTE, because Mario totally KILLED the song. \o/ It was fantastic. I’m definitely adding him to my list of “musical actors to catch more frequently”. :D Damn, Rudolf definitely needs a lot more scenes, or else, the Japanese version gives him way too little stage time! /complains

Show highlights
TBC…

Cast List

This year, the double cast was only for Sara and Alfred.

Count Krolock: Yamaguchi Yuichiro
Sarah: Chinen Rina
Professor Abronsius: Ishikawa Zen
Alfred: Urai Kenji
Herbert: Yoshino Keigo
Koukol: Komada Hajime

Three of the names, Yamaguchi, Ishikawa and Urai, might seem familiar, but that’s because I watched them as Death, Franz Joseph and Rudolf in Elisabeth in 2008.

Also, I had extremely good seats: 1st floor, aisle seat, first row of the final middle section. Tanz saw the actors using the audience area for various scenes, so I had a good look at most of them.

Yamaguchi Yuichiro as Count Krolock
Personally never having heard his Count in my entire life, the only two Counts I having heard before being Mate Kamaras and Steve Barton (best Count Krolock ever!), I was really looking forward to Yamaguchi as the Count. He still had that weird airy singing style he brought forward as Death, which just ever so makes me raise my eyebrows slightly, but his gorgeous voice makes me forget everything, as usual. He was brilliant as Count Krolock, and the role suited him much, much more than Death suited him, simply because Yamaguchi is very tall and imposing on stage. Or maybe because I didn’t have a double cast to compare him to. :) I was in awe after his version of “Die Unstillbare Gier”.

Chinen Rina as Sarah
Oh, I was so, so, so annoyed with her voice. It’s on the sharper side, which surprisingly complemented Urai Kenji’s voice perfectly, but just by itself, it was extremely difficult to listen to. It reminds me slightly of the Christine we had for the Singapore leg of Phantom of the Opera (her name escapes me now), but not as sharp. That said, Chinen is extremely pretty, and I will vouch for that when I saw her at the stage door, and an extremely good dancer. My favorite scene of hers was in “Nie Geseh’n”, and not just because Urai Kenji was in it! It was one of the songs (the other being “Draußen ist Freiheit”) that I wasn’t trying to spork my ears out.

Ishikawa Zen as Professor Abronsius
Oh my god, this amazing, amazing actor. I watched him as Franz Joseph last year, and was already fairly impressed with his voice. My sister, loved his Franz Joseph, but oh my god, his Professor, now that’s what I call brilliance. He had the role down pat – hilarious, ridiculous, serious, all in all extremely funny. He had the audience in stitches during “Wahrheit” and “Bücher, Bücher”. And him and Urai Kenji as Alfred, they were a laughter inducing pair. Especially during “Wahrheit”, and especially when the pair ran into the audience during various scenes. His Professor and Urai’s Alfred had excellent chemistry (maybe having worked together before in Elisabeth? 8D), and I loved them. He was a brilliant Professor.

Tidbit: Ishikawa Zen will be playing Javert (Les Miserables) in October/November this year. It is unfortunate that I will not be able to watch him. :(

Urai Kenji as Alfred
The one person I bought tickets to actually watch. Urai Kenji is the cutest, cutest ever Alfred to grace the stage. And I actually like Aris Sas as Alfred. But no, Urai Kenji, has this very adorable boyish face, and an extremely earnest charm, and you can’t help but fall in love with him. Anyway, I still cannot get over how amazingly cute Urai was. He would run flailing into the audience, and flail around from one end to the other, before heading back to the stage. This was especially so during “Wenn Liebe In Dir Ist”, one of the most hilarious scenes I have ever watched live. Personally, I felt that Alfred was more suited to Urai than Rudolf (Elisabeth) was – Urai’s adorableness does not come across in Rudolf, except, because of his sharp eyes and eyebrows, he does pull off a pretty fierce Rudolf – I like! As said above, as Urai has a pretty high tenor voice, his Alfred complemented Chinen’s Sara perfectly; he was so cute, and she was so aloof, you can’t help but love the two of them together! It was also awesome to watch him in awe of the Count (which was exactly how I imaged he should have played Rudolf with Yamaguchi’s Death! Darn it.), and absolutely hilarious together with Ishikawa’s Professor. Somehow, the two of them (Urai and Ishikawa) have excellent chemistry together. I do hope they reprise their roles in future productions. :D

Yoshino Keigo as Herbert
TWO WORDS: EXTREMELY GAY.

And therefore, another brilliantly casted role.

Komada Hajime as Koukol
First, I want to say how absolutely awesome this man was. He effectively stole the show from the intermission onwards. The 26th July intermission video is available on the official blog, which everyone should watch and laugh. It was even more hilarious in real life. Also, the Japanese production included a lot of comic moments which I don’t recall in the German version – that was fantastic and added a bit of bounce to an otherwise fairly serious show. :D Not that there wasn’t any other hilarious moments, but the Koukol moments were the best. Really.

Show Highlights
1. Urai Kenji’s Solo “Für Sarah”
I… I… No words can describe how absolutely heart warming his rendition was. I had this “*O*” look on my face throughout his song. At that point in time I wanted to change my name to “Sarah” and pretend he was singing to me. It was so heartfelt, and it was just so lovable. It was one of my favorite moments in the whole show. I only wished his version had been recorded in the recording instead. :(

2. Yamaguchi Yuichiro’s Solo “Die Unstillbare Gier”
To give you an idea as to how fantastic everyone thought this was, Yamaguchi effectively received a near 30 second clapping ovation, and some of the audience in the first section gave him a standing ovation. That was how good it was. It was an amazing, amazing rendition. Just, amazing.

3. Ishikawa Zen in “Wahrheit” and “Bücher, Bücher”
Ishikawa was actually better in Wahrheit than in Bücher, but either way, both scenes were hilarious, and had most of the audience laughing along. In Wahrheit, he had the addition of a hilarious 5-people act of himself, Urai Kenji, the actor and actresses for Chagal, Magda and Rebecca, which made it all the funnier! In Bücher, I had to choke back a loud guffaw when he suddenly walked into the library, and was met with all the books. His expression was priceless! I really loved his Professor Abronsius.

4. Urai Kenji and Yoshino Keigo in “Wenn Liebe In Dir Ist”
A VIDEO CLIP OF THIS MUST EXIST SOMEWHERE. This scene would take the cake for “most hilarious scene” in the whole production! Urai had this look of “oh my god, what is happening to me, HALP!” the whole scene, while Yoshino had a look of “HEHEHEHEHEHE, HE’S SO PRETTY I WANT TO RAPE HIM 8D” and I think everyone spent more time laughing than doing anything else. Plus, Herbert was wearing really “lolomgwhatisthat” worthy skimpy clothes, which just made it all the funnier. And Alfred was all “Ehhhhhh I don’t want to be here let me run away /cry!”. The most hilarious part was after Urai stuffed the book into Herbert’s mouth to prevent himself from getting bitten, before running screaming into the audience. He was right next to me and I never felt so inclined to LAUGH VERY HARD.

5. The Finale
Finale has always been my favorite part, and this production just nailed it. It was colorful, interactive, and everyone just enjoyed themselves! Naturally everyone got a standing ovation, because everyone was still standing from the Finale! Also, at the very end, the actors tried to teach us how to do their Vampire dance (that they did during the Finale), and it was absolutely hilarious. They came into the audience and showed all of us how to do it. 8D Herbert was extremely into it, for some reason.

At the stage door
This year, I managed to get the autographs of 3 out of 4 of the main cast; Chinen, Ishikawa and Urai. And for Urai – FINALLY. I even have it addressed to me, so it meant even more. It was really an honor to finally get the autograph of my favorite actor. :D

To conclude, Tanz der Vampire was a visually brilliant, and musically brilliant production. If there is ever a chance, this should be on the list of “to watch musicals” if you’re in Japan. While I did not get a chance to watch the second double cast of Sarah and Alfred in action, I’m quite sure they would have done their roles justice too. :)

Also, I have discovered that Takeda Shinji will be playing Mickey in “Blood Brothers”, just next week. I am extremely annoyed that I will not get to watch it. :(

Um, Japan trip in July = Tanz der Vampire = Urai Kenji = reviews?

And I’m meeting a friend from Canada at the same time! We’ll probably be heading on to watch Tenimyu together, and there goes a good $100 just like that. Poof.

I’ll think about what to do with this domain… It doesn’t expire ’til 2011!!!

I fell in love with my characters all over again.

So, why is it that I can’t stop worrying about whether or not I’d fail my stupid exams? D:

And, to all those fucking idiots out there worrying about their scholarships and As and I don’t know, GETTING TEN As? SHUT THE HELL UP. I’m trying to figure out if I can even pass my bloody subjects. For all your apparent brilliance in school you people aren’t that smart, are you?

The worst part is that ‘oh! It looks like some of these idiots are “friends”‘. Why is it that I’m “friends” with stupid people? Am I becoming stupid too? -_-;

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Cast List [December 18 Matinee]:

Death – Takeda Shinji
Elisabeth – Suzukaze Mayo
Franz Joseph – Ishikawa Zen
Lucheni – Takashima Masahiro
Rudolf – Irei Kanata
Sophie – Kotobuki Hizuru
Young Rudolf – ?

First, Takeda Shinji stole the show. Almost every point will be made back to him.

Takeda Shinji
This guy. Was. Amazing. Sure his singing was mediocre at best, while he was on pitch 95% of the time, he sometimes does this ‘thing’ with his voice that irked the crap out of him. BUt overall, I actually quite like his voice tone. It’s tolerable. I’d listen to him again. And again. But his acting, was crazy fantastic. There’s no other words to decribe it. You’re drawn into his Death just by watchimg him – forget about the singing, everything was forgiven once he started moving across the stage. I’ve always known he was a great actor (many Japanese movies over the last 3 months starring him), but never did I expect such a fierce Death from such a small figure. It was almost cute – Takeda had to wear platforms to elevate his height. Even so, he was barely taller than Suzukaze.

His really small frame led to almost mistake him as a female character more than once. But I love it. His Death is one word – feisty. But the way he moves across the stage, it’s brilliant – he’s so comfortable as Death. And his Death is crazy demanding, and he’d do anything to get what he wants. Such a different intepretation, but a really good one nonetheless. Also, Takeda growls a lot as Death, which is one of my favorite points about him. This came out fantastic during Franz Joseph’s Alptraum.

Did I mention that his Death is crazy good looking? Now I have. /shallow. Also, Takeda is just plain gorgeous. During ‘Elisabeth’, he starts off sprawled across the desk, whereas Yamaguchi just sits. Afterwhich he cradles Elisabeth in his arms (and gropes her – he’s insanely gropey), but it was really hot.

Suzukaze Mayo
What a difference in their voices! Suzukaze’s voice is very much mellower (?), and pleasant to listen to. She makes a better Empress than Asami did, but Asami’s younger Elisabeth was certainly much more believable. Her voice played off Takeda’s almost perfectly, although you could still hear his vocal issues, but Wenn ich Tanzen Will is very nice – especially the cheorography on stage. I don’t know if it’s the two of them or just Takeda Shinji, but the Death/Elisabeth pairing came across really strongly. Suzukaze played off him very well too, she responses convincincly to all of Takeda’s actions. Very nice. I very much preferred her over Asami.

Ishikawa Zen
My previous opinions still stand, but he did appear to have fantastic chemistry with Suzukaze. I almost didn’t want her to go to Death in the end. Almost. ;)

I’ll talk about Franz Joseph’s Alptraum here:
I love the conducting. I don’t recall Yamaguchi conducting, but Takeda makes a huge scene of it. It was in a way rather cute, but also really fierce at the same time. Ishikawa played off Takeda here in a brilliant fashion, and you could almost hear the desperation in both of their voices and see it in their actions. It’s as though Death, although knowing that he would ultimately in, began to question his ability in getting Elisabeth’s heart. And you could totally see that Ishikawa’s Franz Joseph had no intention of giving her up, even though he knew that there was no way he could win.

This is a very visual scene, it has to be watched, preferably live. I can’t describe it. I thought this was the most amazing Takeda Shinji moment in the whole musical.

Takashima Masahiro
I’m happy to ship his Lucheni with Takeda’s Death. Takashima tried to take some liberties with his melodies this time, and it was actually much more fun to watch him. Plus, he totally plays with Takeda’s Death, as though he is amused with what Death is trying to do. I didn’t get that impression with Yamaguchi.

Irei Kanata
Tenimyu standards still stand, although Irei’s voice is definitely stronger than before, but when you put Irei with Takeda singing Schatten, it is almost rather painful to listen to. Irei can’t hold the melody line, and there was no way in hell Takeda could back him up. It was very unlike the Takeda/Urai pair I watched, Urai has the ability to hold the line while Takeda sings the counter. Irei could barely hit the high notes in Wenn ich dein Spiegel wär, and I cringed at that.

BUT. All his vocal flaws, along with Takeda’s, were forgotten in a flash, during the first minute / chorus of the Schatten. Irei plays Rudolf slightly too wimpy for my liking, but he also plays Rudolf as helplessly in love with the mysterious Death – or so the impression I get from the way the two of them interact with each other, especially during Schatten (I may be mistaken, but I ship Death/Rudolf). Because of the massive height difference between Irei and Takeda (maybe just about 5,6 cm after the platform boots for Takeda. It’s more significant with Urai…) the cheorography for Schatten was completely altered. This new Schatten involved Rudolf on his knees for a good part of the song, and Takeda takes advantage of that, and his Death uses this opportunity to plan for a way to use Rudolf to achieve his goal – Elisabeth.

Schatten was incredibly hot. Incredibly gropey, and incredibly amazing. There were sparks flying everywhere, even if you get the impression that Death is only using Rudolf, and Rudolf was willing to let himself be sacrificed for Death (oh wimp). It was good that for every single action by Death, Rudolf would respond. When Death placed a hand on Rudolf’s face at the end of the first chorus, before leaning in to kiss him, Irei’s Rudolf actually wanted to, but he pulled away at the last moment. Picture.

Image from Elisabeth 2008 program, Imperial Theatre.

When Death pulls Rudolf around his body, Rudolf reacts in a way that he does not understand why he’s so attracted, and how he knows that Death is so far away – immediately after that Death tosses him onto the floor. But Death still tries to kiss him, once more, before telling him that he should take the throne (lyrics) – in a sense that if not, “you mean nothing to me”. Bastard.

Did I fail to mention that for Takeda’s Death, the Rudolf would be on his knees half the time? I love responsive Rudolfs, and Irei’s Rudolf is one of the most responsive I’ve seen.

Image from a musical magazine.

Also, even though his singing is less than impressive, you can hear the despair in Irei’s Rudolf during Wenn ich dein Spiegel wär as he discovers that everyone he loved once had forsaken him; Death, Elisabeth, Franz Joseph… If I actually understood Japanese fluently, I would have cried – the lyrics are heartbreaking too. ):

Takeda also ends up giving one of the longest Death to Rudolf kisses ever. And unlike Yamaguchi who practically envelopes Urai, Irei had to lean into Takeda’s body. Veeery hot. And at that point in time, as Death passes Rudolf the gun before turning away, I somehow felt from Death that, maybe, somehow, he did not want to kill this boy. And the (adhjkasdfrickingawesomeasdjhkasd) kiss? It was almost like Death was finally saying ‘goodbye’. *heart, pain!*

Also, today’s young Rudolf was remarkable. He gets the Sheryl stamp of approval.

And, for Mama, wo bist du?, if Uwe Kroger’s portrayal was considered pedophilic, I don’t know what Takeda’s would be called. I thought it was sweet though, after a few days of mulling over it, the way Takeda blows a kiss to Rudolf. It’s almost like telling him that, there is someone who loves you (whether or not for the damn wrong reason, I don’t care!)

To conclude, I originally thought that if I could overlap the sounds from day 1 onto day 2, except for Elisabeth, it would have been a perfect cast. But, I take that thinking back – It’s because of Takeda’s flaws that make him so endearing, and Irei’s emotional voice that gets to you (not forgiving the wimpy Rudolf yet, Rudolf’s my favorite character!), and the intensity of how each member plays their character that made this performance well deserving of the 5 curtain calls. Or was it 6? And the standing ovation was spot on.

Thus ends my Elisabeth journey. Perhaps they’ll reprise their roles again in 2010. I would want to watch Takeda/Urai, and Takeda/Irei again.

Cast List [December 17 Matinee]:

Death – Yamaguchi Yuuchirou
Elisabeth – Asami Hikaru
Franz Joseph – Ishikawa Zen
Lucheni – Takashima Masahiro
Rudolf – Urai Kenji
Sophie – Kotobuki Hizuru
Young Rudolf – Ota Rikito

Yamaguchi Yuuchirou
His voice… his voice is as every bit as awesome as I heard it on the cast recording. Hell, it’s even better in real life. The impression I got from his Death is that he’s a really imposing character – and I kind of felt that his Death was somehow present in all the scenes. Yamaguchi kinds of ‘strolls’ across the stage, and unfortunately, that really slow movement cannot be translated into dancing. Massive fail for his dancing. Yamaguchi should not dance. Even his ‘Der Letzte Tanz’ was just deliberate movements. Very much in stark contrast as compared to the Death played by Takeda Shinji (next post).

Asami Hikaru
I’ll get this off my chest first, I don’t like her voice. I read lots of good reviews about her before I chose my cast lists, so I was really expecting a strong trio from Yamaguchi, Asami and Urai Kenji [Rudolf]. My expectations of her fell flat. I was wondering as I watched the TV preview whether her voice was going to sound that way in the theatre… Alas, to me, it sounded worse. Her Elisabeth is fine. Although she doesn’t match Yamaguchi the way Ichiro Maki did – they don’t sound the same. She did win me over as young, carefree Elisabeth though. Plus, she’s really pretty. =/

Ishikawa Zen
My sister loves him, that has to count for something? I really enjoyed his Franz Joseph though. I did biasedly pick him when I watched the preview (although it’s just coincidence that I got him for both casts, I wasn’t too concerned about Franz Joseph – he’s a character that’s like, just there). He played off Asami really well though, and like my sister insists, the Franz Joseph/Elisabeth pairing as certainly more heartwarming than the Death/Elisabeth pairing. I liked him, anyway! Love his voice. It’s really nice to listen to.

Takashima Masahiro
I LOVE THIS LUCHENI. First, he opened the show by showing the ‘Judge’ his middle finger. A million points in my book, that was awesome! My sister thinks he plays Lucheni as a bit of a jerk, and I can see how so. But it does not stop him from being really fun on stage. Lucheni also has the coolest songs (Milch, Kitsch etc), and it’s fun to watch him play on stage. \o/ Personally, he played off Takeda Shinji better, but that’ll come in another post.

Urai Kenji
When I first heard Urai Kenji sing, it as in Seramyu. That was an absolute disaster. The next time I heard him sing, it was in a 5 second preview of Schatten with Yamaguchi. After that, I had to book them. I was initially only going to book one show, and I had a severe headache trying to choose which Death/Rudolf pair to watch, thank goodness the buying of cheaper tickets allowed me to watch 2 different pairs. No regrets there.

I love Urai’s Rudolf, really. He doesn’t play him as strong as Jesper Tyden plays Rudolf, but you can sort of tell that his Rudolf does have a bit of say in what he wants. He understands that what he does will have consequences, but he still does it, anyway! His Rudolf his very aloof towards Death, which brings me to the next point, Schatten between Yamaguchi and Urai was absolutely flat. Which is sad, seeing that Death/Rudolf is my favorite ship. =/ They sound gorgeous together, but that’s about all. It might be that Yamaguchi hardly gave Urai any moves to act on (Yamaguchi even skipped the nice gropy movement after the twirl in that Uchino did), and Urai did not act on his own. But that was how he interpreted Rudolf – Death only gave him the idea to work on, his Rudolf did not need Death.

I’m skipping Sophie because she was just Sophie. It was nice to watch her. But clearly, can’t you tell that my attention was solely for Urai Kenji who only had like, 20 minutes of stage time. Apart from the clear lack of chemistry between Yamaguchi and Urai (disappointing, really), this cast was an absolute pleasure to listen to. Yamaguchi’s godly voice backs up everyone’s, especially Asami and Urai. Schatten was amazing to listen to.

This year, 200sgd = 12500jpy

That’s like, 16.7% down! D:

Here’s a tentative shopping list to see how much I can leech from my parents, and how much I will change myself:

Doujinshi shopping: ~5000yen
Tenimyu shopping: ~7000yen
Elisabeth shopping: min. 3000yen (for the damn pamphlet which is at least 2.5k)

Est. Total: 15000yen

OH MY FUCK.

I WILL WIPE MY SAVINGS BECAUSE OF THIS DAMN TRIP.

My Nano is complete!

Has been complete for a very long time.

Luka and Azrael both ate my life, Luka more so than Azrael, and both of them found their happy endings. \o/

The complete unedited Novel runs 177pages, 78,415 words. The edited version? I don’t know, because I won’t be doing any editing until next year, January at best.

I am very tired, and very proud of myself.

Luka and Azrael, may you find peace. It has been fun being your author.