All female Japanese production of Chicago at Lincoln Center

Takarazuka Revue shows are definitely an interesting and different experience! I lived in Takarazuka for awhile and was able to get to know many of the students/performers as I taught them English. They are incredibly dedicated and serious performers and are well known around the country. Their training begins as girls and is definitely intense and very regimented from a young age. I was always impressed with the hours that they put in every day (on top of coming for English Lessons). I was able to see a few shows at their theater, one being Phantom of the Opera. And it was pretty darn interesting.

They are quite popular in Japan and have a lot of Super Fans....can't even imagine what a stagedoor would be like with these ladies around!

Would love it if you wrote a review to the show since I won't be able to make it myself!!

Updated On: 7/7/16 at 12:13 AM

Received a mailing about this a few months ago and jumped on a ticket for this production. Very much looking forward to it! Also bought The Merchant of Venice and Golem.

Takarazuka CHICAGO at LINCOLN CENTER tickets are on TDF.

I saw the show tonight via TodayTix. It's a very interesting experience. I liked it a lot, though I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I had sat closer. It's such an enormous theatre!

The performers are all excellent, and in general it's such a unique experience to see this show done by a cast like this. For anyone going, be aware that it is close to 3 hours, due to the "Takarazuka Encore" performance after the show - which was great, and made the experience all the more unique.

How do the rights work for something like this? I've always been under the impression that you couldn't get the rights to do a NY performance of a show that is already playing in New York. Where was the loophole here? Is it that it's just playing for a week as part of a theatre festival, so it doesn't count as a full production?

JBroadway said: "phan24 said: "The show itself is a replica of what's on Broadway (except in Japanese)"



Is it really? The same staging, sets, choreography, orchestrations, and everything as the Broadway production? Wow, I didn't realize that. I saw the current Broadway production about 10 years ago, and don't remember much about it, other than the basic aesthetic for the production. Now I'm even more curious about the process of obtaining the rights for this production.





Yupp, just saw it on Broadway a couple of months ago and it's virtually the same show, it was exciting to think that both productions started and were going on at the exact same curtain time.

Barry Weissler, the producer on Broadway, was there tonight and is always very involved in all the Chicago productions so I'm sure there was no performance rights issues with this production, but I have no idea on the specifics.

Updated On: 7/20/16 at 11:53 PM

There are no plans for the show to tour the US, this is just a special engagement for the festival. The Takarazuka Company does the occasional international tour but they have been reluctant to come to the US since their last engagement back in the early 90's. With the rise of the internet and greater accessibility to those of us outside of Japan the company has started focusing on their international audiences. They recently toured Taiwan (twice) and they have updated their website with more information in English and have made it possible to purchase tickets for their shows (in Japan) from outside of Japan via Paypal. in the past you could only buy tickets if you lived/were currently in Japan.

If this show, which is made up of alumni from the company, is well received I would not be surprised if they decide to bring a troop of current members to NY with a show in the future, but as of right now they do not have any plans to do so.

Updated On: 7/21/16 at 06:14 PM

So worth going even if you don't understand Japanese?

I've seen it before in English in a few times so don't know if it's more for dance and style when seeing it in different language.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/takarazuka-at-lincoln-center

Saw this last night, and it was definitely worth seeing. Our cast (which changes every performance, with each lead actor only performing 2-3 shows during this run) was great. Tons of amazing voices and performances, and even though I don't speak Japanese and I've never seen Chicago before, I found it to be very enjoyable.

And I agree with that review that was posted a couple comments back, it was worth going for the encore just as much as it was for the Chicago segment of the evening.

It's a boy and he's not.

Sorry! No shade! Honestly I was like ..is that a boy? No .. It's an all female cast... Wait.. Hm..

I was in like row K? But sounded live to me! I mean guys on Broadway do it, no?

As far as others have said, it's incredible. So much raw energy. It felt very alive! Everything landed! It was fun to revisit the show being a huge Kander and Ebb fan!

Can someone explain how Velma's entrance works? Is it a trap door? When I saw the tour in my hometown, which usually gets non-Union tours, she still came from the floor, but it doesn't look height enough to have her coming from the set itself?

I saw this on Friday night and really enjoyed it. It really was thrilling to see an all-female cast performing the show and everyone was great (I thought the ensemble members who played the male dance roles were particularly excellent - when they were onstage, my eye was on them). And the Encore was an extremely fun and unexpected surprise. "Chicago" isn't one of my favorite shows (although this cast made it worth seeing), so I would love to see Takarazuka come back to NYC with other shows in the future!