Glory Days
So I went to check out their...18th (?) or so...show on Wednesday afternoon.
...random pic of an area nearby↓
And while waiting around for the doors to start admitting audiences, I saw this. Here, doggy doggy doggy...↓
...
...I had doggie stew that evening. It was de-rrrrrrrri-shious!
Picture-taking was prohibited so no pictures of the show. Sorry. I had an aisle seat, 5th row from the front and as luck would have it, the dude sitting in front of me was of epic physical proportions and covered about 1/3 of my view so I had to crane my neck left and right to see what's going on. =/
The story itself was pretty standard. Four high school friends reuniting with one another after a year of not seeing each other (though if my memory and understanding serve me correctly, two of them are roommates so they got to see each other pretty often). Then one of them comes out of the closet and another has a problem with it and the others try to make him see the light and well, you get the gist cos that's pretty much it. Nishijima's character (Will) is the one who wants everyone to be all happy-happy-joy-joy but then gets a lesson in life that that things don't always turn out that way. There were quite a bit of comedic moments but the gist of the show was that. The performances were very good, though, with emotions flaring all over and the dudes all acting very well while singing their hearts out. It's worth the money I paid for it at least, I feel.
Oh and they were circulating these for ¥1500 before the show↓
I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted to fork out the moolah but in the end thought, "Ah, why not. It's not like I come see shows like this often. Or at all, really." And the result of which is what you see below↓
Oops! Sorry. This isn't it. But man, it's good. I had it the day after. Mmmm.
Oh, right. Here↓
For more pictures of the programme booklet, go here (some color versions available).
Oh and I had to pay an extra ¥500 at the venue for a drink coupon which I redeemed after the show. The grape fruit drink I had had some pretty strong alcohol in it and I ended up tipsy enough to mistake yellow for green and took this yellow line (which my alcohol-muddled mind thought was green) all the way to the boonies and back. Quite the sobering experience, yes. Glad I didn't have it before the show cos then I would've slept right through it. -.-;
And it only occured to me that Irei was a half after I've seen him in the flesh. The programme thing states him as half-Chilean. Huh. And yeah, he's a good actor (and a more than decent singer). His character (Skip) used to be the G.I. Joe jr. sort back in high school since his dad was one but then he turned all dandy after a year in uni. He's the funniest character, imo.
Nishijima looks pretty much the same in real life as he does on TV/PC/laptop/iPod--which is to say, dude looks like a lady. No, really. I happened to also have bought this ToriA dvd thing (the one with the purple cover) and in it, this lady who, together with her husband, runs the sushi shop that Nishijima and his family used to frequent back in Sapporo, said that back when he was younger he used to really look like a young girl. Which made me think, "Whadaya mean "used to?!" But then I guess she was just being polite since Nishijima was there and it was a ToriA thing that's going to be sold in the market.
--ahem, anyway, I digress. The dude's cute in an anime sorta way and can really sing, I give him those. He did good in the show overall. =)
Rachi (Lucky?) has a very strong stage presence. I found my attention gravitating towards him a lot of times. Well, his character has a loud personality, so I guess that played a huge part.
And Kouhei played his part (the gay one) very well. You kinda feel for his character. And he sings good, too.
On the day I went, 95% of the audience were adults (with the remaining 5% in their middle to late teens), comprised of mostly girls (surprised?), but a healthy 30-40% of that crowd were middle aged women. The guys made up about...I dunno 10 to 15% of the audience? Though I think the one who sat right in front of me easily made up 3% of that. They weren't that rare a sight that day, though, which surprised me. Every row had at least one or two (or even three of them). xD
And that concludes my report. Oh right, they were also selling merchandise outside but I decided to forego those since I already broke my budget with the ticket, drink, and the programme guide thing.
hic!
EDIT (August 2009): Watching it a second time, I realize that my initial review wasn't all that accurate in terms of the show's premise. Looks like my memory was being very selective when I wrote it. >.<; It's not just a story where a guy comes out to his friends and faces the consequences of doing so. There's a bigger picture of showing how people tend to change in some ways and not in others as they grow older but subsequently drift apart all the same--something that makes Will (Nishijima's character) a sad panda. LoL. Sorry. The alcohol had a stronger effect on me than I thought. -.-;