日本のファンドーム、私の人生の一部

In late 2008 I discovered the recast of the Japanese production of Tanz der Vampire. With Urai Kenji reprising his role as Alfred, I had to get tickets to watch. Despite the scare of H1N1, I found myself back at the Imperial Theater, where I watched Elisabeth in 2008.

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. :(