Thoughts on RIO DE BRAVO!! vol. 1
Rio de Bravo, the show I had anticipated the most this year, begun it's month-long run on the Grand Theater last Friday. Ever since this show was announced was I thrilled with sheer wonder I thought Takarazuka was going to create. I mean, HOMETOWN REVUE 4TW! I got even more excited after watching this rehearsal footage on Nicovideo. Suddenly, besides hordes of siennes shouting the name of my adorable city, there were also pompoms (cute!) sunglasses (yay!) fedoras (YAY!) and... swords? I have no idea what the swords mean,but they are involved in the choreography at some point. And if Scarlet Pimpernel thought us something is that dancing with sharp objects is just plain awesome! \o/
I went to the english site today to see the official english summary of the show and was stunned to see that every single scene in Rio de Bravo is called a Gate. What the hell? Is that suppose to mean something? XD
But my bigger shock came when I saw that every single scene had its name written in either Spanish (ew...) of French (what?). Hum...not really sure what to think about that. I mean, there is one scene called Una Hija de Ipanema, meaning A Girl from Ipanema. It's an obvious reference to the bossa nova song, but it shouldn't be that hard to, you know, google how the song was named in Portuguese. C'mon! Garota de Ipanema is a classic!
And yet, despite the language mix up, random terms in portuguese do appear in the name of the characters, like "Melhor Amigo" in scene 10 and "Mestre Sala" in scene 6 (about that, Mestre Sala is supposedly Carnaval Woman A, played by the adorable and talented musumeyaku Amase Izuru...there is a small problem with that. Mestres Salas are always men ^^' Someone did not do the research XD).
Also, Takarazuka fails Geography. Forever. Why, oh why, there is a scene in the Amazon Forest? Rio is as close to the Amazon as New York is close to LA! XD I have to say I find it quite amusing, actually.
So, amidst my WTF? reactions to the overall craziness that this revue apparently have, I decided that I'm still gonna buy the DVD and squee really hard when necessary. Be sure to check the photos on the Daily Sports website because they are just that awesome. Costumes look great (even though, I'm sure Takarazuka is severely underestimating cariocas' fashion sense. Nobody wears these purple suits nowadays. At least, not often. ^^')
BTW, is anyone out there planning on seeing the show? I'd love to read some first hand reaction to it!
I went to the english site today to see the official english summary of the show and was stunned to see that every single scene in Rio de Bravo is called a Gate. What the hell? Is that suppose to mean something? XD
But my bigger shock came when I saw that every single scene had its name written in either Spanish (ew...) of French (what?). Hum...not really sure what to think about that. I mean, there is one scene called Una Hija de Ipanema, meaning A Girl from Ipanema. It's an obvious reference to the bossa nova song, but it shouldn't be that hard to, you know, google how the song was named in Portuguese. C'mon! Garota de Ipanema is a classic!
And yet, despite the language mix up, random terms in portuguese do appear in the name of the characters, like "Melhor Amigo" in scene 10 and "Mestre Sala" in scene 6 (about that, Mestre Sala is supposedly Carnaval Woman A, played by the adorable and talented musumeyaku Amase Izuru...there is a small problem with that. Mestres Salas are always men ^^' Someone did not do the research XD).
Also, Takarazuka fails Geography. Forever. Why, oh why, there is a scene in the Amazon Forest? Rio is as close to the Amazon as New York is close to LA! XD I have to say I find it quite amusing, actually.
So, amidst my WTF? reactions to the overall craziness that this revue apparently have, I decided that I'm still gonna buy the DVD and squee really hard when necessary. Be sure to check the photos on the Daily Sports website because they are just that awesome. Costumes look great (even though, I'm sure Takarazuka is severely underestimating cariocas' fashion sense. Nobody wears these purple suits nowadays. At least, not often. ^^')
BTW, is anyone out there planning on seeing the show? I'd love to read some first hand reaction to it!