Me and My Girl | Flower Troupe | 2016 |Takarazuka Grand Theatre

[glitra]

Disclaimer: I am not a huge fan of Me and My Girl, especially when it is done at the Grand Theatre. It’s a two act with not a lot of named roles and minimal stage time for those outside of the main characters. I mean, the nibante role is John Tremaine.

I am not going to go over the plot because if you haven’t seen the show the wiki offers a wonderful synopsis.

Overall: I’m going to go with my standard Mirio-gumi advice.  This show was good. If you like either of the leads or Me and My Girl buy it. It’s fun, it’s cute, its everything a production of Me and My Girl should be. If you are an underclassmen fan who isn’t a huge fan of Mirio and Kano, then I suggest skipping it or buying it for cheap from Taka-an.

Asumi Rio: As the same as with Ernest, this show really highlights Mirio’s strength.  She is undeniably comedic gold in these types of roles. She has the likable aura of a goofball that works with her style and look. In my opinion she is much more believable in these types of roles than in the sex-pot roles they are trying to force her into. She’s a cupcake, this works with it rather than against it.

Kano Maria: I’m going to be real here, as a character I find Sally irritating, so I was concerned about how Kano would handle her. I was impressed. She was a surprisingly solid Sally. She was a touch over the top in certain scenes, but this is Takarazuka so I wasn’t too surprised. She wasn’t the strongest Sally I’ve seen Takarzuka put out, but she also wasn’t the worst. I’m slowly making peace with Kano.

Serika Toa as John Tremaine was good. I mean, I can’t write a novel about how I like this character and Kiki brought out some hidden depths to him. I don’t think there are particularly deep depths to him. But she was a solid John Tremaine. I preferred her to the B-cast of Seto Kazuya, who while (I hope) she tries with every character, she only really has two acting styles, her normal otokoyaku or her sleazy otokoyaku. I am a fan of neither of these, and her John fell flat for me. I was talking with a friend of mine about the show, because she had just seen B-cast. She didn’t mine Akira’s John, but she seemed to think my disappointment was largely because I am a huge hanagumi fan. I know Akira, I have expectations for what a basic role she does looks like, and that’s what this was. She thinks I went in expecting to see growth of some kind,and found none. While she doesn’t have the history and though she did a perfectly serviceable, if not a little forced performance.

Speaking of people who disappoint me because I am such a huge fan of Hanagumi and know all these actresses well, Senna Ayase as B-cast Maria, Duchess of Dene.  This woman has an amazing voice, but like Akira her acting leaves a lot to be desired. This I know is a case of me having expectations for growth and her falling flat, she always does. Yuki, you could be such a dynamite older musumeyaku if you just opened your repertoire up a little bit. Ousaki Ayaka in the A-cast role of Maria, Duchess of Dene however showed a hidden strength and poise that I wasn’t sure she had in her. She is a giggly sweetheart that the company adores because she lights up a room, I was a touch concerned about her managing to pull of Maria, but she did.

Yuzuka Rei was Jackie, in all her gold digging glory.  As we all know, Rei is never going to be a singer, however she wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. I expected to be plugging my ears and cursing Hankyu, but surprisingly it wasn’t bad. She didn’t seem like a boy in uncomfortable drag. B-cast Jackie was Hozuki An, who vocally was the better Jackie, however I found her acting to be a touch off. Rei was graceful and feminine in an over the top way that works for Jackie. For me, Chinatsu’s lacked.. Authenticity I guess. I found that she came off as flat. Which, to be honest is often a problem I have with Chinatsu’s characters.
 My friend and I also spent some time talking about why we liked our different Jackie. She preferred Chinatsu’s vocally sound Jackie, while I preferred Rei. We decided it came down to taste, she liked a more subdued version of Jackie, whereas I like my Jackie like I like my Adelaide, a touch over the top and trashy. She liked less of a caricature portrayal.

We also didn’t agree on who was the better Gerald, for the same reason we didn’t agree on Jackie. I like Me and My Girl because it is over the top. Everyone is an embodiment of different stereotypes, and I like that Takarazuka plays that up. Jackie is ridiculous, and so is Gerald. In terms of being over the top, I liked Minami Maito (A-cast). She was adorable, fluffy and whiney. My friend preferred Serika Toa, because she generally likes Kiki and wanted to get to see her DO something, and because Kiki was more nuanced. I didn’t dislike either of these casting, to be honest. Maitii will be the DVD/Bluray, but the digest version of Kiki will also be well worth the watch.

Of all the other minor characters, I have to admit that both Marika Yume as Chief Maid and Tenma Michiru as Hethersett were my favorite. Yume is absolutely terrifying as a starched housekeeper/maid. One life of her pointy eyebrows in my direction would scare the pants off me. I love watching her scare underclassmen. Taso was an amazing Hethersett. This was a role that should have been hella boring, she could have phoned it in and nobody would have noticed. Instead she did a really nuanced portrayal of a man who is trying to hard not to hit somebody because it wouldn’t be Proper. You can tell she’s thought about how to control her breathing to optimize looking put out about the ridiculousness that has taken residence in the manor.   Her sighs and the tightening of jaw are a work of art and I highly suggest that you try and look for it on the Bluray/DVD once it is released.

I would also like to put out there that I am not a huge fan of this mini finale. I saw this show three times, and every time I came away thinking that it just seemed… unorganized? I guess would be a good word. It should be clean and sharp but it didn’t. This may just be me, and in all honestly it doesn’t help that I didn’t see this show from far back or the second floor at all. Maybe the Bluray/dvd will surprise me.