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sambart93 · 6 years

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2018.08.23-24 Saraba, Gold Mountain [Review]

I was super excited for this stage because Bancho are consistently churning out great plays, and I've been so impressed every time I've been (and what I’ve seen on DVD), which is actually only twice including this one (see my Amakuhanaize 3 review here and also ALL their event reports can be found here), SO I couldn't wait and see what this one was all about!

Official Website here Official Twitter here Online Website here Press Coverage 1, 2

CAST and CHARACTERS

Futaba Kaname as Katou Sunhara Kensuke as Masuda Nishihara Kenta as Taisho Chiwata Yuhei as Matsumoto Kikuchi Shuji as Okamoto Domoto Shohei as Shacho / Factory Boss Oosumi Yuuta as Okada

Higawari (Daily-Change) Guests: Oribe Yoshinari (8/22 and 8/25) Futaba Yuu (8/23) Yasui Kazuma (8/24) Momiki Yoshito (8/26)

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: As expected, I was NOT disappointed! They made a GOLD stage once again! This one was far more funny than anything I've seen of theirs yet! There was a LOT of room for adlibbing and improv. as well as scripted comedy and all of it landed so well! It was so well timed, so enjoyable. The boys were enjoying it JUST as much as the audience! And what made it even better is that the audience (primarily girls) were DOWN for loud laughter. Usually at 2.5 stages and such, with a predominantly female audience, the audience tends to just giggle, just laugh oh-so femininely and politely. But at this one, I was not the only one bursting out into gigantic laughter. Everyone felt comfortable enough and everyone was tickled enough that they could not hold it in and everyone was laughing so loudly and so hard, and that made the experience even more amazing! I am super thankful that everyone in the room unspokenly agreed and felt comfortable with proper, actually laughing. This stage is absolutely hilarious! I watched this twice and both time I was clutching my stomach because it HURT from laughing so much! I got SUCH a good workout from this show! It's absolutely hilarious. The story is so simple that it's easy to follow and thanks to all the boys' personalities we could get different types of adlibbing and different types of comedy. They all brought their A-game and they were all hilarious - AND charming(!) at the same time! Of course, comedy aside, the story is simple yet charming and great. The characters are very well done, as usual great acting from them all! I enjoyed every aspect of this stage! It was pretty unique too. It had a very realistic theme but they were able to change it into something ridiculous, enjoyable and funny. I give kudos to all the boys! Especially the Higawari cast! Some of them only had like one or two rehearsals before their performance days came and each one of them had their own style and both times (I had Futuba Yu and Yasui Kazuma) they brought great energy to the show and they were such a nice and little addition to the stage! I think even the main cast didn't really know what to expect from their higawari characters xD I went in with high expectations and they gave me what I wanted AND more. They topped it! Once again! Seriously, go watch a god damn Bancho stage (I shamelessly link you to this DL here)! They are amazing! Rating: 9/10 - only loses a mark because it was just a tad short (it’s just under 90s minutes.) I wanted more!

SPOILER REVIEW

Going into this stage I had some pre-thoughts:

It's Bancho! It's Domoto! I'm excited! Domoto said it was going to be European inspired so I’m expecting something LIKE D-Boys' Garantido where it's just their everyday working life, and maybe something comes to disrupt the peace. (<<< which, turns out, I WAS right about!). And because it's Bancho, we're obviously going to have some of the actual members realities thrown in there as themes, and we're going to have some serious and possibly crying moments, but also lots of comedy and higawaris and pure stupidity! I am excited!!

Turns out... I was pretty god damn accurate about it xD

STORY

A manager (Kaname) and his new employee (Sunahara) go out for drinks one night, but when they get the bill, they soon learn that Japan, along with the rest of the worldwide, is suffering from Inflation, and something that once cost 3000yen (about 30USD or 25GBP), now costs 30,000,000yen (300,000USD or 250,0000GBP). So until they pay the entirety of their bill, the owner (Nishihara) will not let them leave his bar. A table over with had another boss (Kikuchi) and employee (Yuhei) who were fully aware and prepared for such a bill and belittle Kaname and Sunahara for their stupidity. But they too couldn’t predict that over the course of the night, the Inflation would get worse and they TOO would be forced to stay til they paid in full. So the entire story takes place at this Outside Food/Drink Stall and a few colourful characters make their way to the bar too. And hilarity and ridiculousness ensues.

Of course, in true Bancho Boys style it goes from funny to absolutely ridiculous in 0.1 seconds. So let’s break it down! I’ll do the main things and stuff that happened in both performances that I saw; and then I’ll go into what was different.

THE STAGE

☆ I love when Sunahara and Kaname are told about the bill that they react in the most manzai (comedian-duets in Japan) way ever and pretend to collapse to the floor. And even after NishiKen tells them 3 times that he's not lying and that the bill really comes to 30,000,000 yen, they still proceeded to fall down comedically xD I love how they also drag Kikuchi and Yuhei's character into joining them in the falling.

☆ I love how part way through, they randomly reveal the back left side of the stage which is a giant, magnified phone screen and it projected the currency and the news about inflation on it. NishiKen's reaction to the reveal of this prop is hilarious. It's funny just purely because they acknowledge it so normally! xD

☆ There's a part of the play where Sunahara gets really angry, and he does his EH?! which we all immediately recognised and was reminiscent of a skit (this one) and we all died laughing. It was even more hilarious by the fact that his reaction was aimed towards Yuhei. It was perfectly pitch and the perfect timing during both shows I saw!

☆ I really loved the buddy action between and the character development for Yuhei and Shuji's characters! They start as very normal, serious Japanese businessmen who are looking down on the foolish Kaname and Sunahara who were too dumb to see the world news going crazy about Inflation. But as the stage progresses, you can slowly seeing their normalness cracking. There are some gold moments where Kikuchi uses Chiwata almost like a body guard or shield sometimes (both physically and metaphorically) from other people. Shinji would use Yuhei as a shield whenever people came over to pummel them. One good example of this is towards the end when they're all starting to argue and fight with one another and Kikuchi says something that pisses off Yuuta and Kikuchi throws Yuhei in the way so Yuuta pushes and corners Yuhei into a corner and has a go at him, while Yuhei is just shriveling up in complete and pure fear; and at that time he had such a squeemy face. It was great slowly seeing their true colours coming out; and seeing just how fucked they were just like everyone else.

☆ At certain point of the play, everyone in the scene would freeze while one point was on in the center. Here, Kaname would step into it and give a narration of the story and it's events. He was the protagonist and the narrator. But there was one moment towards the end of the show where Kaname was doing this narration and Yuta starts moving, eyes the spotlight and Kaname really weirdly, before finally coming over like ‘who the fuck you talking to?!’. So obviously Kaname freaks out and resumes back into the story but Yuta is still staring out into the audience completely puzzled, and obviously we were all cracking up laughing as he tries to figure out WHO Kaname was narrating to xD

☆ SPEAKING of Yuta! Yuta is just the king when it comes to ridiculous comedy!! His character is completely stupid anyway; he's a rich, mafia(?) guy who is just too stupid for his own good. He gets incredibly angry because one of them accidentally scratches his car, so naturally he wants someone to pay (a ridiculous amount) for it, but he very easily gets wrapped up in their talk of Inflation and how they'll survive and then Yuta decides he too won't leave until someone pays for his car, but then he something simple catches his eye and he starts fighting the others for it. He is absolutely pompous! He had some many funny moments and had everyone in hysterics (including himself) and he was just amazing in it!

☆ The story is set in Osaka so naturally the script and their accents were in Kansai-Ben. Hearing them use Kansai Ben was GREAT!! I enjoyed hearing it so much!! Quite a few of them are from the Kansai area (NishiKen and Kaname. Although Sunahara is from Kyoto, he said the Osaka dialect is different to his Kyoto one so NishiKen had to help him xD) so it would've been easy for them!

☆ Kaname plays a superior or boss at his company. He's the narrator of the play, taking moments out to talk directly to the audience and to narrate the story at times. He's oblivious and he can't quite understand what is going on around him. But he is good hearted and tries. Also he's married --- a point that all the cast on stage get shocked about even though he has a ring on xD

☆ Sunahara plays Kaname's kouhai/younger coworker. As he's younger, he's full of energy! I remember him and Kaname had a great comedy duo going on, they worked very well together and their chemistry was great!

☆ NishiKen is the owner of the outdoor bar/food stall where the four businessmen end up stuck because their bills are too expensive. In true NishiKen style he is tsukkomi-ing like hell, has perfect comedic timing and is the perfect balance of going from a pissed/angry owner to insulting others to being scared for him life. His acting was great and he had some many great moment!! The comedy TIMING of this boy never ceases to amaze me!

☆ Kikuchi had the perfect balance of being stoic and acting as if he's from a higher class when he realises Kaname and Sunahara knew nothing about the Inflation, but as the stage progresses, he's able to slowly show cracks in his character until the story becomes absolutely ridiculous and he's just as ridiculous as everyone else xD

☆ Yuhei is Kikuchi's younger coworker and he is kind hearted but he definitely gets thrown into situations he doesn't want to be in. He's sort of weak and kind of a wimp; he definitely freaks in all the scary and tough situations with the most hilarious, squeemish looks on his face.

☆ Domoto plays the owner of a factory; he's your typical factory man who, after he finished work just wants a good beer and some quiet time to himself. Even though he seems dumb, he quickly proves he's just as many parts clever as he is stupid. He is clever enough to figure out a system to get around the Inflation without having to worry about money, but he fights over silly things such as not wanting to share food. It was a different role that we've seen from Domoto so far and I think he did a great job! His body language in his characters is definitely his strong point. From his body language alone he FELT like a factory owner (I don't really know how to explain this but you catch my drift right?), and when he was scared he was able to make himself look very small and timid etc. He did a great job -- course he did! I'm bias as hell! xD

☆ Yuta definitely stole the show in this one. He plays a rich, mafia (I assume) guy who is very hot-headed and pretty stupid, which causes him to start fights with everyone on stage even if it's a miss understanding. Yuta SHINES when it comes to comedy. He is both intentionally and unintentionally funny. He's great with scripted comedy, adlibbing/improvised comedy and he is just naturally amusing to watch. He did amazing in this if you ask me! He was, for me at least, the star of this show, even though he isn't in it for the first half at all!

☆ The Higawari Cast's character was.... odd. I think he was supposed to be the friend of Yuhei/Kikuchi but he is, what's the best word to describe him as, eccentric. At least from what Kazuma and YuuKun did; their character was ridiculous and completely over the top. In true Kazuma style, the character was dramatic and ridiculous. I absolutely loved that during Kazuma's performance, he started reciting who scenes and lines from Death Note and put on this huge act; the audience seemed to get the references straight away which was great so we could all die laughing together. I think the guys on stage too were at a loss as to how to react. In true YuuKun style, he was very funny, ridiculous, and a little stupid. I was so happy that when he first came on stage, he immediately went to Kaname and the two of them looked at each other very puzzled and said 'have I seen you somewhere before? You look familiar.' the audience ADORED this moment for very obvious reasons! <<< if you didn't know Futaba Kaname and Futaba Yuu are twins.

I really, really hope they've learned from past plays and have filmed ALL the higawaris from the boys because I'd really want to see the other performances too!

Now back to some key moments and comedy that I loved! Although this may be very Yuta heavy xD

☆ There is a scene where Domoto, Sunahara, Kikuchi and Yuhei fight over the money that is left on NishiKen's shop counter. This is another scene where everyone slows down, and NishiKen tries to get between them to break up the fight but then they start attacking NishiKen instead (more on this below because it was different every show). In this fight, I’m pretty sure Domoto ended up on the floor in defeat and he stayed there for a long time xD

☆ Another scene is when Yuta is obsessed with this Family Pack of sweets/snacks -- it is actually what gets thrown into Yuta's car, causing him to get angry and to join their madness -- so he fights Domoto for it. They start fighting for it, so there is a scene where they are pulling the family pack away from each other and neither of them will give up. They do it in slow motion so everytime one of them has the upperhand, they did these funny faces, which of course Yuta's were better and were very, very hilarious!

☆ Towards the climax of the story, Yuta gets stabbed accidentally. His reaction is GOLD. He reacts so slowly reacts to it and then yells very loudly 'ITAI!!! / OUCH!!!!!' and then proceeds to mope around the stage, 'this really hurts! It's hurts!! Argh!!!' and he was so comical.

I am NOT doing ANY of this comedy justice. It's hilarious, okay! Just trust me xD

☆ Then right at the end, Yuta loses it and just takes his gun out and shoots everyone! again, we get a slow-mo scene so everyone in the audience is laughing. Also, the way they fall to the floor is very funny. I specifically remember YuuKun's death because he gets shot and, similar to Yuta, his reaction is very late and delayed so he get's shot.... ARGH! And then he proceeded to do this flying wing action as he fell to the floor. It was hysterical!

☆ Another scene I remember is right at the beginning (backtracking a little I apologise. But y'know my reviews are always all over the place xD) when NishiKen explains how much their bill is and why it costs so much, NishiKen lists off the food they had and Kaname is like 'that is not what we had!', and he grabs the yakitori stick/skewer and goes to points at what they ate but he doesn't remember so he asks Sunahara and he slowly labels off types of yakitori (illustration example here) but every show he said something different so Kaname had to quickly get on board and remember what he said, but I remember at the first show he was like 'what? Does that even exist?!' clearly it was a yakitori that's not usually on the menu, or Sunahara made it up completely xD

☆ I love when Yuta first comes into the scene and he sits down next to Domoto at the counter, but Domoto is just full of fear and is slowly trying to turn away from him while Yuta is talking.

☆ The final moment I remember is when Sunahara slaps Yuhei. It was so unexpected and the timing is perfect and just made everyone laugh out loud.

DIFFERENCES

I went to this show twice and there was a LOT of adlib and improvisations, and as you know, one of the characters was a different actor everyday or every performance, and of course each actor has their own sense of humour and comedy style which they brought to the stage. So here are some differences between the two show I saw.

First Show - Thursday 23rd November Night Show

☆ During the scene where Nishiken is being lifted up by Yuhei and Suna were holding Nishi in med-air for ages, but then they finally put him down. Nishi was holding onto them for dear life xD

☆ YuuKun's performance was, as I already mentioned above, GOLD! He had people screaming with laughter. Our stomachs were all hurting from the amount of comedy he threw at us. He was so good! Also, as mentioned, they did the whole 'brothers meeting' and when YuuKun came on Kaname was like ‘hang on... ain’t I seen you somewhere before?!’ these boys know what we want to see!

☆ Yuta completely broke character and was pissing himself laughing when YuuKun came on stage. Yuta tried so hard to keep it together and it keep looking mean, but he had to turn away from the audience, and you could tell he was dying inside of laughter. That's just HOW FUNNY YuuKun is okay! His comedy, even when he speaks normally is GOLD. He is so, so unbelievably funny!

☆ I really have to reiterate how funny YuuKun was doing that flying winged movement when he died. It was like something inspired from a RedBull advert xD

☆ Towards the end of the show, Nishi's character gets really pissed off at the ridiculousness of everything and just wants everyone to stop so he took his shirt off in anger. The audience died naturally. And then sometime after that scene, he just starts flexing his chest/breast muscles which killed the audience even more.

☆ NishiKen is another who is so naturally funny and his timing is great! There was a point where Kaname was talking really seriously about the situation but NishiKen slipped out a really quick but insulting comment causing the entire audience to die of laughter while poor Kaname tried to continue on without cracking up himself.

☆ During the curtain call, YuuKun got to speak and they all commented that he had only had one rehearsal for the show (because he was so busy with Saiyuuki at the time, review here), and they were all so impressed he was able to do such a great performance regardless of that. I figure he probably practise when he had time at home because he lives with his brother so they could've easily done their scenes together in their free time at home.

☆ Sunahara also spoke at the curtain call this night and commented on how even though he's from Kyoto, in the Kanto region, the boys like NishiKen had to help him with the Osaka Kansai accent and dialect because he felt it was different to how Kyoto people speak.

☆ There is a scene where Domoto acts out and gets angry, seriously there are so many ridiculous fights and out-spurts in this show xD and at this show, he ended up really kicking NishiKen who took it like a champ. I think Domoto surprised himself at how well he could do it but NishiKen kept in character and was like 'wtf you doing?!' xD

☆ There were two curtain calls / rounds of applause and when they went off both times, Kaname always took something off stage with him. At this show he took some of the money with him as he walked off.

Second Show - Friday 24th November Night Show

☆ The highlight of this performance was definitely: Yuta forgetting his lines completely. It was during his character was this center monologue scene and he just forgot completely. Yuta forgot then tried to start over (the audience and himself was already cracking up at this point), and Domoto just blurted out 'oh don’t start ALL over!’ which cracked Yuta up even more but he got himself together and when he finally did his moment from start to finish, he got a huge applause from the audience, to which Domoto (in character and according to the script) responded, ‘I don’t get it (= I don't understand what you just said)’, and Yuta (completely out of character) replied ‘I don’t get it either’ and we all lost it again xD Yuta was so OVER it at that moment. Because this stage is suppose to be ridiculous and funny and comedic, it was totally acceptable and okay for Yuta to mess up as much as he did. He's a great guy, he's funny, we all love him, this stage was a comedy; we all accepted his massive mess up and we all joyed in on the fun of it!

☆ For Kazuma's higawari he was essentially himself -- I feel he only ever plays himself if I'm being honest -- and was being overdramatic and ridiculous. Which IS enjoyable and fun! But what made his character amazing was the fact that his moments were completely full of Death Note lines and scenes xD his characters main introduction had him reciting Ryuk lines and then at the climax of the stage he started doing the lines and actions from the final Light vs Near scene in Death Note. It was clear that most of the audience got the reference (BBs audience are pretty young. I'd say like late high school to my age, mid-20s) and loved Death Note too by the fact everyone was laughing at him. Even the boys on stage were like 'who you acting with? Who you talking to?' and either had puzzled or amused expressions on their faces xD

☆ Instead of NishiKen doing the chest flex today, we had Kazuma singing his lines rather than saying them (like a normal person!) and once Kazuma had finished NishiKen's PERFECT comedic timing kicked on and he said 'your arms are so skinny!' xD

☆ Speaking of NishiKen, he wasn't lifted up this time when they were fighting over the money. Instead, Yuhei took off his shoe and shoved it in his face but because it was a scene where we go from slow-motion to everyone freezing and Kaname going into narrator mode, NishiKen had to stay there with the boot in his face and his face didn't not look impressed. It must've been stinky~~~ xD

☆ When Kazuma first appears on stage, Yuhei tries to talk to him but Kazuma immediately said to him 'speak in a lower voice' and everyone died of laughter. So Yuhei said his line again IN a lower tone xD There was another point during the stage also where he asks him to lower his voice xD

☆ Also Kazuma squealing his line out just barely because it was a long line and he was running out of breath, killed everyone too. Especially when Yuhei immediately responded with 'even mine doesn't go that high' xD

☆ The curtain call had Kazuma and Kikuchi do a small speech. Unfortunately I do not remember what they said.

☆ And finally, Kaname took a drink after the first curtain call/applause, and then at the second one took two big wads of money xD

Extras

After the second show, I got Chekis with Domoto and for once I had something to say and a question ALL set up for once! So here's a quick summary of that:

Me: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu Domoto: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu Me: let's do a peace pose! Domoto: Okay! *pose for cheki/polaroid* Me: Thanks for the good work! Domoto: Thank you! Me: Are you sleeping okay now? (He mentioned recently that he was having trouble sleeping) Domoto: Oh yeah! I'm okay now, thanks! *takes cheki and says goodbye

GOODS

This was heavily overdue and my memory is not serving me the best but it is done now! Turns out I have ANOTHER Bancho Stage left to review and upload -- which is absolutely ridiculous, I really shouldn’t be this far behind but... oh well!

#bancho boys #review #stage #stage plays #stage play #futaba kaname #futaba yuu #domoto shohei #yasui kazuma #nishihara kenta #chiwata yuhei #kikuchi shuji #Oosumi Yuuta #二葉勇 #二葉要 #堂本翔平 #舞台

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