Romeo & Juliette @ Akasaka ACT Theatre, 2011/09/12, 13:30
On Monday ina and I went to Akasaka to see 'Romeo & Juliette'. No, that's not a typo - this is the Japanese version of the French musical, which I'd never seen before but am now rather interested in seeing because the songs were very catchy. Lots of singing about hatred, though! The show had a double cast, but we deliberately picked a showing where Shirota Yuu was playing Romeo. What we didn't realise was that he would be playing a bright blond Romeo, because he's dark haired in all the promo pics!
Akasaka ACT Theatre is right outside the station, which is very nice, and also in the middle of a massive complex including Akasaka Blitz, the TBS store (which has been taken over by Ikemen desu ne stuff, and a lovely large shopping centre. Great place to kill time before a show, and just before 13:00 we joined all the women queuing to get through the doors. It was kind of like going to a JE show in the sense that most of the crowd was female, people were taking pictures of posters outside, and there were lots of goods (pamphlets, bags, T-shirts, photos, Shirota's singles etc.). We had a look at all the flowers but didn't spot any familiar names.
I didn't take notes during the performance because a) I should hope anyone reading this would already know the storyline and b) I don't anticipate too many people will be reading this anyway. But for my own memories, I like to have some sort of record.
We had good seats - second row of a rather steep balcony, off to the left, so we could see everything perfectly. This theatre is tiny. Just as well, because I liked the sets a lot, especially Juliet's bedroom (inside and out). Everything was simple but it worked so well.
Oh, another thing that made me think of JE? Colour-coded costumes. Montagues were in black/white/silver, and Capulets were in red/gold/brown. Lots of leopard-print, fake fur, and dodgy fashion choices. Our Mercutio for the day sported dreadlocks and a top hat, and I adored him from the start. Benvolio had an odd, quasi-military outfit, unlike all the other young Montagues (sans Romeo) who were young (dancing) street toughs, but he had great blond and black tiger striped hair and I liked him too. I walked out of there shipping Mercutio/Benvolio, with a side order of Romeo, because they had this wonderful dorky friendship. (Yes, mabudachi were mentioned in relation to them!)
Romeo...well, he didn't come out ahead in the fashion stakes at all. He should've taken tips from the much cooler Mercutio. Bad hats, strange white suits...he could've done better. But he looked pretty good in just his underwear, making out with Juliet on her bed.
I should mention that our Juliet for the day was seriously short. In high heels, she still didn't even come up to Romeo's chin. Nice singing voice, though.
The front row of the first floor were very lucky. After the mayor's announcement about duelling, Benvolio tries to call Romeo but can't get through on his cell phone. (Yes, there are cell phones. Romeo is shocked when he tries to get Juliet's details on her balcony and she tells him she's not allowed a phone, and Benvolio was muttering something about Facebook earlier...) So he runs off to find him, and when he does, he and Romeo sit on the edge of the stage, dangling their legs in the faces of the front row, and that's not the only time they go into the crowd.
Paris was unimaginably camp. I don't know what old Capulet was thinking, wanting Paris to marry his daughter. He did get blocked a lot by Mercutio and Benvolio at the Capulet disco, though.
Yep, disco. With masks, but a disco nonetheless, and I had great fun watching everyone dance. There was a nice bit where Romeo and Juliet end up on opposite platforms and they get wheeled to the middle of the stage where they meet at the top of the stairs, aww. That's pretty fast to fall in love, but that's Shakespeare for you.
I must spare a word for our Tybalt, who also had great hair (a ponytail, rather than Mercutio's awesome dreadlocks) and a hell of a lot of fire in his belly. This guy was terribly expressive and he and Mercutio played off each other extremely well.
The nurse was also very good, much larger than life, and played up the comedy very well. She had a great way with the younger men, treating them like naughty schoolboys. Which some of them were - they hung out on the streets with a boombox, breakdancing in public and generally aggravating everyone over the age of about twenty.
Hell, Romeo and Juliet were just a couple of kids, and Juliet looked it. Romeo didn't, most of the time, but he dropped a decade when he suddenly tackle-glomped the priest from behind to thank him for agreeing to perform the wedding ceremony. (It was the least he could do, having interrupted the poor guy mixing up stuff using a recipe on his laptop...)
End of Act 1 was the wedding. Act 2 featured more of Romeo cuddling guys and holding their hands on the stage. Yep, everyone got a piece of Shirota, probably none more so than Mercutio during his rather tragic death scene. I kid you not: they sat there like that for a good couple of minutes, cuddling each other as the life ran out of the poor guy.
I didn't understand why there was a pale guy wearing a black skirt/leggings combo and a net shirt, ballet dancing around the stage and haunting people all over (not to mention, molesting Romeo a lot) until I saw the 'Dancer of Death' credit in the pamphlet. It makes more sense now, but he threw Romeo around a couple of times, crawled through his legs, stole his little wrap, crept up behind him and tried to throttle him gently...you get the picture.
Benvolio got hugs too, when he went to give Romeo the bad news. See, after killing Tybalt and getting banished, Romeo (and his wheelie suitcase) ended up in a sleazy bar, featuring a bunch of nubile young poledancers who tried to tempt him with drugs and the like. They accidentally smashed his cell phone, so Benvolio couldn't get through to tell him Juliet was dead. Too bad he showed up in person, leading to the eventual tragedy.
The ending was fantastic, though I feel sorry for Shirota and his Juliet because they had to lie there on that slab for ages while everyone sang and danced around them! First the mothers made up, and then the fathers. It was like "Hug a Capulet Day!" or "Hug a Montague Day!", and the way Benvolio immediately latched onto a Capulet girl I'm pretty sure he was sweet on her.
At the end, after the bows, Shirota gave a quick speech and then the music came on again, so he immediately started bouncing up and down. Such a dork. ^_^ He and the rest of the cast started dancing crazily, the Capulet disco all over again, and I wish I had a fancam of him dancing with Benvolio because it was so cute! There was a lot of great dancing in the show and these guys, they'll dance with anyone, including each other. Mercutio/Benvolio/Romeo OT3!
I'm going to have to take some pics of the pamphlet, incidentally, because the rehearsal pics are adorable and there is this one totally dorky coffee advert with Shirota where he is a disembodied head. I know katmillia likes disembodied heads. ;-)