1913 – Present Takarazuka Revue

Years active
1913 – Present

Stage Name(s)
Takarazuka Revue

Category
Male Impersonator

Country of Origin
Japan

Birth – Death
N/A

Bio

Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe based in Takarazuka, Japan. It was founded in 1913 making it the longest running, all-female, still active theatrical show in the world. The Revue was conceptualized as an all-female performing group in response to traditional, male-dominated theatre spaces where laws banned women from the stage until 1888. This lavish theatrical production is wildly popular where tickets are famously difficult to acquire. 

Takarazuka Revue boasts its own adaptations of Broadway and non-Broadway musicals such as Phantom (based on The Phantom of the Opera), Elisabeth (based on the German musical), The Rose of the Versailles (based on Japanese comics or ‘mangas’), as well as a plentiful program of musicals, operas, plays, mangas, and historical biographies in its repertoire. 

The Revue was founded in 1913 during the Taisho Era (1912-1926) which followed Japan’s period of foreign influence and steady Westernization during the Meiji Era (1868-1912). Following this period of social upheaval, the creation of an all-female performing theatre group perhaps scarcely comes as a surprise. Takarazuka Revue was conceptualised in response to traditional, male-dominated theatre spaces: laws which banned women from stage till 1888, and the iconic all-male practice of Kabuki, then also in its heyday.1 It, however, was not intended as a social critique. Its founder, Ichizo Kobayashi, was first and foremost a railroad entrepreneur who sought to provide one-of-a-kind entertainment for the hot spring resort town that the Revue is famously named after. In turn, this provided business for his new railway line that cut through the region.2

In spite of its practical origins, the heart of Takarazuka Revue’s mission has always been about “selling dreams”, its signature phrase which encapsulates its enduring appeal.3 In more precise definitions, these “dreams” could be interpreted to mean opportunities, representation, reclamation and gender emancipation for both actresses and female fans/audiences alike. Its subject matter too, is often dreamlike and faraway for Japanese audiences, with most of its productions based on western operas and musicals, historical subjects, and, a little closer to home but still recognised as a fantasy: the fairytale-esque shoujo manga (literally “girls’ manga”) – an element that will characterise Takarazuka Revue’s performances regardless of its plot and setting. At a glance, the hair, makeup and costumes of the Musumeyaku and Otokoyaku already bring to mind such drawings of wide-eyed, fluttery-lashed shoujo manga heroines and the sultry and often androgynous ‘pretty-boy’ bishounen heroes respectively, decisively sealing the world of the Takarazuka Revue in a fantasy as simultaneously accessible and romantic as these manga stories, amplified and made more lavish with the spectacle of live theatre.

As an all-female company performing stories with male and female characters, Takarazuka Revue iconically employs two role types: the “Musumeyaku”: the female roles in-universe, often performed in a hyper-feminine fashion, and the “Otokoyaku”: the male roles in-universe, often performed in trousers (perhaps calling to mind the breeches or male impersonation roles of European theatre and opera stages), shorter hair and/or wigs, and occasionally drawn-on facial hair: a deliberate performance of masculine signifiers.

Regardless of role type, performers are first enrolled as students between the ages of 15-18 at the Takarazuka Music School. On top of a regimen of exams, a strict hierarchy between senior and junior students, school uniforms, along with singing and dancing classes, the aspiring Takarazuka performers are also trained in the conventions of their roles. Known as ‘kata’, they refer to gendered conventions of “form, posture, sign, code, gesture, and choreography”, with Takarazuka’s ‘kata’ being particularly exaggerated and stylised. In just one example, Otokoyakus stride across the stage with clenched fists and a more open posture, whereas Musumeyakus shrink in on themselves by holding their shoulders and arms closer to their torsos.4

The Otokoyaku or male impersonation role, sporting ‘pretty-boy’ makeup and costumes as discussed (such as heavy eyeliner and glittering military uniforms), does not seek to ‘pass as’ or mimic a ‘realistic’ or “archetypal” ‘maleness’ a la the traditional male Kabuki actor’s mimicry of “archetypal” Japanese femininity in women’s roles.5 Rather, the Otokoyaku is a vision, a heightened, glamourised fantasy redefinition of masculinity. Where the expected gender norm of the Japanese man is the stoic ‘oyaji’ or salaryman, Takarazuka Revue’s Otokoyakus are “outstandingly handsome, pure, kind, emotional, charming, funny, romantic and intelligent”, once again much like the romantic bishounen leads of shoujo manga.6

Besides offering the freedom for actors to escape gender roles through performing an idealised masculinity on stage, Takarazuka Revue also provides female audiences with a similar freedom to escape the gender roles – most notably as housewives and mothers – in their daily lives. Drawing heavily from shoujo manga, Takarazuka Revue taps on shoujo culture as a whole: a pure, non-sexual schoolgirl-like wonder and detachment from adult responsibilities.7 The Otokoyaku thus not only provides a romantic fantasy of masculinity catered to this gaze, but, as women playing male roles, also serves as a ‘prototype’ female audiences can relate to and project their nostalgia for the “tomboy years of freedom”: the youthful hopes of going on the same adventures male heroes go on.8 In its schoolgirl infatuation and tomboy fantasies, free from the gendered expectations duties dictated by adult society, the shoujo state of mind has been argued to exist beyond the gender binary in itself.9 This, of course, does not negate the lesbian fanbase or homoerotic gaze, which takes on another level in productions featuring queer characters (eg: its adaptations of Ludwig II and Nijinsky, two known gay historical figures).10 All of which, intentionally or otherwise, Takarazuka Revue encourages with its dreamy style of male impersonation.

In spite of this, it is worth noting that most of Takarazuka Revue’s historically prominent alumni were Musumeyakus, perhaps reflecting the standards of gender conformity in mainstream media beyond the revue. Yachigusa Kaoru (1931-2019) and Otowa Nobuko (1924-1994), who had performed with Takarazuka Revue from 1947-1957 and 1939-1950 respectively, for example, maintain a legacy in Japanese film history. At odds with the popularity of the Musumeyaku in the industry is, of course, the Otokoyaku craze that has arguably given Takarazuka Revue its fame. This has been reflected and countered by the Star System of the revue, introduced in the 1980s.11 The Revue performs in five troupes (Flower, Moon, Snow, Star, and Cosmos), each of which boasts a ‘top star’ Otokoyaku, often alongside a Musumeyaku who does not share her top star status, but is only billed with her in a ‘top combi’. As the Musumeyaku herself does not receive the same attention, the fans’ adoration of the Otokoyakus is reflected and validated by the Star System, and the addition of the Musumeyaku as part of a pair a testament to the popular impact of the masculine ideal of the Otokoyaku and the romantic, even homoerotic, potential the role type holds in its subversion of heteronormative gender roles and relationships. Notable Top Stars include Miki Maya (1964-), who has since had sold-out solo concerts in Japan and featured on NHK – Japan’s most notable international television channel – programmes such as Top Runner, attesting to her popularity even after leaving the revue. Takarazuka Revue’s longest-running Top Star remains Yoka Wao (1968-), who has contributed to its legacy in a nearly two-decade long career as much as it has boosted her stardom. Wao joined the Revue in 1988 and resigned in 2006, performing in both the Snow Troupe and forming the then newly-created Cosmos Troupe, and has also found success starring in Japanese films and musicals outside Takarazuka.

The transcendent fantasy of Takarazuka Revue is best observed in its trademark extravagant sets, melodramatic musical scores and eye-catching costumes: a mise-en-scene that has been criticised as “superficial, florid, gaudy, dreary, banal and cheap”.12 However, it is in this “adolescent girls’ chewing gum – nonsexual, romantic and harmless” for some, and sexually liberating for others, that many have found an outlet for expressing and reclaiming their gender and sexuality, be it their masculinity, femininity, or something not-quite either.13 In other words, a sort of male impersonation offering emancipation through the performance and redefinition of masculinity unique to its context, culture and conventions.

(Submitted by: Laddie Oscar Wild, Singapore)