Tales of Hoffman

Alright, I am sure that people are sick of me talking about this on here as they are listening to me talk about it in the AKP lounge, but I went to Takarazuka again on Sunday. This was my first time seeing a play in the smaller theatre (called Bow Hall), where they put on simpler shows without musical reviews after them that are cast with actresses who might later rise to top-star status. In the larger theatre the top role is always taken by the performing troupe’s top star, but in Bow Hall they give various different people chances to take lead roles. The play itself was ‘Tales of Hoffman’, and was based on the opera of the same name, though was not really an opera stylistically. I believe that some of the music was the same, but there were liberties taken and (I believe) songs added. The people that I saw really did seem promising, though I was not fond of the sound equipment, and felt that it would have been better if the actors hadn’t been microphoned, as the theatre itself was small enough that I’m sure we would have been able to hear them. After the show itself we hit up the gift shop, this time to buy DVDs that I had been allotted grant money for. I submitted a proposal a while ago for money to use buying Takarazuka DVDs that would allow me to expand an earlier project that I had done on trends in Takarazuka costuming, and had received approval before I went to Takarazuka this time. I bought: ‘Rose of Versailles- Oscar and Andre’, ‘Elizabeth’, ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, ‘Hoshikage no Hito’, and ‘Phantom’ in addition to some things for myself (a ‘Rose of Versailles’ song book, a Kei Aran calendar and another set of tickets for a show about vampires). Unfortunately, spending this much money was way out of my spending pattern, which meant that my debit card company got suspicious and put a hold on my card that I had to clear up on the following Monday.
-Most shows in Bow Hall are double-cast, which gives even more actors chances to take lead roles.
-Spending that much money in one go (even knowing that I’m going to be reimbursed) makes me lightheaded.
-If they do not have a piece of merchandise that you want at the gift shop in the theatre, go to one of the stores outside the theatre.
-It seemed that there were (very quiet) scalpers outside the theatre, which makes me think that I might be able to get tickets on the day of for a play that I was not able to reserve tickets for initially.
-If you want to buy mp3s from a Japanese site, you need a credit card with a Japanese address attached to it, but if you buy something called ‘Net Cash’ from a convenience store here you can use that to pay online.