#retj 2023

[solariene]

I think it's becoming official that we're having a DVD version of RetJ 2023 😭😭

I really hope they're also going to play in France but with everyone's schedule I don't think it's going to happen before the end of 2024 or 2025 (I can wait one or two more years as long as I can go see the musical 🙏🙏)

[wickedthing]

low quality tycutio (2023 version)

[panderi-the-fleabin]

I'll be honest I had to look up the definition of this prompt and am pretty sure I did not do it justice. I did have fun drawing Tybalt from the austrian production of romeo et juliet though

[aki-draws-things]

I sketched tycutio cause they cute and adorable!

... I spent lunch doing an alternative version of it and will finish it hopefully tonight / tomorrow.

Yes, it's gonna be happy and sappy. Yes, it's also gonna be really sad.

No, I do not regret it one bit.

Enjoy~~~

[acting-pterygii]

hey slurt

say that to HIM

[margridarnauds]

Something I've been trying to articulate is why a lot of criticisms of Takarazuka productions (esp. adaptations) from outside the Takarazuka fandom don't often WORK for me, so here are some angles that I wish that people would go into more, instead of treating Takarazuka Musicals™ as a conservative, sparkly monolith:

Comparing different adapted musicals together -- Elisabeth, RetJ, and 1789 were both adapted by the same director, Koike Shuuichirou, so you can spot solid similarities there, but what about Le Roi Soleil, La Legende du Roi Arthur, Mozart l'Opera Rock, Anastasia, Don Juan, The Scarlet Pimpernel, I Am From Austria, etc.? It isn't even to say that they're all wildly DIFFERENT (there are certain changes that I'd argue are common among multiple adaptations), but it's to say that you can do better work when you have a broad pool to compare these things with.

Relating to that, comparing the work of different directors, or even the same director's work in different productions. (Koike's work in Elisabeth in the various Elisabeth Takarazuka productions over time VS the various Toho, or his work on 1789 between the 2015 Zuka to the Toho productions to the 2023 production.)

On the reverse side, instead of or in addition to questioning why changes were made, questioning why Japanese audiences are DRAWN to these foreign musicals in the first place. La Legende du Roi Arthur alone deals with themes of rape, incest, deals with the devil, adultery, etc. Is it the fact that it's foreign and therefore exotic enough that it can get away with things that other musicals can't, or does it show that there might be an interest in darker material alongside the stereotypical Takarazuka material (whatever that means)? (I have my own opinions, but this is an angle I almost never see in these critiques.)

What Takarazuka material looked like 20-30 years ago VS the present. How has the tone changed? How has it varied?

Like, Takarazuka is easy to take cheap shots at, and, a couple of years ago, I wouldn't have been far off from these criticisms myself (and I've made my own), but I feel like a lot of the criticisms are grounded in only using one or two adapted musicals from one director, pointing to them, and going "that's Takarazuka™"

[cto10121]

Found this 2023 abridged amateur production of the Mexican RetJ with better production values!!!!

[panderi-the-fleabin]

Montacrew based on this lovely template:

[cto10121]

Finally found something on Idaho RetJ!!!!

[cto10121]

Idaho RetJ: Review and Commentary

You’ve heard of and tried vainly to forget London RetJ. Now get ready for and try to forget *checks notes* Idaho RetJ, apparently, coming January 2023. The battle of the English RetJs has begun. Who will win? You decide.

*rap artist intro voice* Hey, you! Yeah…Uh…all right…It’s happenin’ tonight, man…you in Verona now…you in V-town…uh-huh…let’s go—

(Also no choosing left or choosing right…the sides are literally represented by blue and red. Embrace the allegory, Idaho RetJ. Fifty points from Gryffindor.)

Idaho Tybalt could write Emily Dickinson, but Emily Dickinson could never—

*Kings of the Hill voice* Well, yo man I tell you what, man, we may play at freakin’ kings of the world, but I reckon we ain’t diddly squat, man, the kings of nada, yo capische?

Idaho Death is an actual kinky ho. It’s canon. #relatable

Tybalt is just too rattled for this. Sorry, he’s not made that way. But really, dying for jealousy is dying for love too, believe me, guys!!!!

Aaaaaaaaand with that Idaho Tybalt is 100000x better than London Tybalt.

It was the fickle winds of chance that bedeviled the romance all along. Of course! Why didn’t we see it?

Romeo, Benvolio, Mercutio. Kings of the world or just dinky roosters? You decide.

Tag yourself, I’m “opus of my early manhood.” I gave her life, she made mine whole hits so hard though ngl

So far Idaho Death definitely has appeal, crawling into people’s beds…(Also Idaho RetJ keeping the Nurse’s part ouch ouch ouch)