I wrote this forever ago. Posting it now.
Endless Shock Eternal 4th Oct 2020
Slightly rejigged from the Feb show.
Let’s have a look.
The broadcast was smooth overall, I was running HD and there was only one tiny lag about one hour in. Probably helped I’m on a new computer with an SSD.
Got a link in my e-mail to the video, logged on about 17:56. There was a title card, with some musak that eventually turned to what sounded like an orchestra tuning up and showing different parts of the Umeda arts theatre. The view at the start was from the upperish stands. Transistioned to behind the screen in front of the stage showing the live orchestra as the intro started. Showed the credits, eternal producer and music credits followed by the cast.
Koichi Domoto was credited with the Story, Creation, Director and Starring.
There was a bunch of shots of the orchestra during this.
Koichi started the show in white, front and centre and there were cherry blossoms projected. Ueda ran on to near the centre, then Koichi walked back, reenacting the ending. Ueda picks up the necklace, in the show Rika gives Koichi a necklace and gets it back when he dies, and gives it to Rika. Koichi looks on. There’s a short dance here. Koichi moves back to the front and gets a spotlight and does the ‘Show must go on speech’ even mentioning he took it from the usual person who gives it (theatre owner). Koichi does the first song with some projections of him on the back screen over the orchestra.
It goes into a jazzy dance number with Ueda the back up dancers led by Matsuzaka? Then Rika in yellow comes. Then koichi in white. At the end Ueda does the Yankee crouch. Ueda and the others drop back and Koichi does a song with Rika in a red dress and other women dancers. The guys come back in red jackets. The semi famous car part is projected on the back screen.
Ueda has a short buddy moment with the back ups. At this point we get a talk to the audience part where Koichi points out that Ueda is not happy. Why Ueda cannot tell us this himself is not addressed.
We go to backstage and the scene is pretty similar to the original show, Ueda gets his first lines here, he’s pretty happy and brags a bit about his work but the rest seem to ignore him in favour of adoring Koichi. Ueda even takes a moment to lay down dramatically on the box at one point in exasperation. I feel for him here. Matsu talks, Rika sings to Koichi who is on a ladder. Beverly (theatre owner) talks happily.
Ueda asks for Koichi’s next idea Koichi does the Shakespeare part, everyone goes WTF, Ueda dissents, Beverly talks him down. Pretty similar to the regular show.
Ueda then gets provoked into a fight with some of the back ups and does a full arm lock take down (it looks like something I learned when I did Jiu Jutsu way back). I know he’s supposed to be the jerk here, and his reaction is outsized but, surely this is a case of don’t clown around unless you want to get clowned? I mean, this is treated basically as a regular occurrence. Why hasn’t Beverly told the guys to knock it off and given Ueda a talking to about proportionate response? Or even a warning? I know guys fight is a cliché but in a setting like this, they wouldn’t fight to hurt.
Rika talks about how Ueda pushes everyone away and runs off. I mean, half the cast seem to treat provoking Ueda as a game and the other half seem to let it happen, of course he pushes everyone away. Any reasonable person would have left ages ago. Anyways as Ueda makes his proposal to Rika, the boys conspire to put Beverly in front of him (this is really a jerk move). Beverly tells him off a little, talks about Rika wanting Koichi.
Go to rooftop scene, Rika is facing forward, Koichi sings to her directly, a lot of gurning here, mugging, you could see the veins on his neck, it was not a good look. The yoga dancing was back but none of the black dancers from earlier this year were there. Rika holds out the necklace but then it becomes apparent this is three years after Koichi’s death and she’s still mourning him. She puts the necklace on quickly when the others come. Weirdly, Ueda is there, gets angry then almost immediately goes full contrite apology to one of the back up dancers. WTF. He’s still there? He had a full breakdown and killed Koichi and he’s still with them? Just urgh. What.
Beverly talked about it here.
Then she pulls the Imperial Garden Theatre card and we go to Ueda being confident and angry that Koichi is the theatre savant doing everything and he gets the short end despite his hard work. He talks about being able to do everything Koichi can but Koichi not giving him the chance, which is true, Koichi basically admits that later on. This is exactly what happened in real life. None of the other cast get a big poster or a scene on wires or even really a solo to call their own.
Go to Koichi grey jacket performance with the Johnnys back ups plus red dress dancers. Koichi leads the chorus including Ueda. Koichi sings a bit while Ueda and Rika do a short dance a quick pick up and hold then separate. Koichi and Rika then duet with Koichi leading. Ueda joins in the with the full dance. Someone says let the show begin and the lights go down. Koichi takes off his jacket, undoes his bow tie and unbuttons his shirt, I’m not sure if he’s supposed to be alive here or not, I think alive and he’s maybe doubting himself as he wanders the stage. I found myself not caring at all about his musings.
Ueda then gets a nice boogie down number with a purple outfit that mixes rap with singing. His rap comes pretty harsh but his singing is good here and throughout. He seems very confident in this scene. A couple of the Johnnys back up people get a couple of lines in here. I can’t remember if that was in the original show, but it looked good here as it showed he was capable of sharing the spotlight with minor players while Koichi I don’t think let his chorus have little inserts like that (excepting duets). This honestly seemed like a missed opportunity as it was never pointed out in the show that Ueda, for all his anger is willing to put a little effort into the others while Koichi is always focused on himself. Ueda gets into a nice rhythm here, rolling his hips and seeming like he is loving every minute. There’s a drummer on the back stage, raised which he gets up close with after doing a nice little jump up. There’s some nice spin kicks here and he did that note rolling thing he does twice. Is this a plot hole? If you’re trying to create a good guy-bad guy dichotomy then surely Ueda is the good guy here? He can share the spotlight with others by sharing lines while Koichi holds it all to himself. But the play acts like Koichi is this overburdened saint and Ueda is an impetuous upstart.
Lights down, there’s some very sharp echo steps and Koichi comes on and we get the red glove dance. Its pretty similar to before except this time Ueda doesn’t even bother with buttoning his shirt, I’m sure much to everyone’s pleasure. His anger comes through very clearly here though I don’t think the reasoning was clear. In the regular play, its a stage hand mess up but I don’t think they said that here. Then everyone gets into this V formation with Koichi in the middle and we have this talking head bit as they all shout their feelings. It comes across a little weird compared to the scene in the standard play though it was probably for social distance sake.
They talk about the stress, Koichi wants to quit, Ueda says he will make a great show. Why doesn’t Koichi quit? This doesn’t really seem to be addressed. I mean, he could. And its not like he seemed to feel any obligation to the rest of the cast. Why not quit?
We get the buzzer for the second act of the show within a show. Rika talks about being sad that her last conversation with Koichi was unhappy.
Beverly, Ueda and Koichi have a conversation in low light. Beverly gives a speech about playing nice, Ueda is angry. I’m having a hard time disagreeing with him here.
Ueda gets his a bit of an angry song then Koichi jumps in and Beverly does a bit too. Ueda says Koichi is awful he’s very angry and upset but Koichi is singing over him. Ueda says he wants him gone.
They sing the same at the end and they’re both clearly upset.
Beverly tries to comfort Ueda saying people are weak. Ueda says he’s not here? Or he’s alone? And he won’t give up. Why not? He doesn’t have to give up performing, just this company. Its clear he’s talented enough to hold his own against Koichi so why doesn’t he leave especially when he’s clearly the butt of the company’s jokes?
Which brings me to the part that really bugs me, Why is Ueda still with the company? He’s clearly not happy and he’s causing scenes with the lead actor. The chorus seem to take great pleasure in provoking him and he violently rises to the bait everytime. Why hasn’t he been fired, long before now? I mean its not like the company is short of talent, they could fire him. They could be rid of him and the company drama level would drop a good amount. Koichi is still a problem, of course, as is the rest of the cast, but getting rid of the person who antagonises the lead and everyone else seems to dislike the most is a good first step.
Back to the play. We get the big fight scene here. Some of the more dynamic parts are shown on projectors with the actors doing live freeze frames, Ueda doesn’t get one for whatever reason which is a shame. This part is very truncated. Instead of the tattoo Ueda has a necklace here as a replacement.
Ueda looks great here. Koichi does not touch him at all, and honestly it shows. Ueda moves around his weapon amazingly, his body just flows with the fight and he looks great as the scrappy, mad bandit. Eventually they show the video of the stairs scene with Ueda and Koichi in casual clothes spotlit below.
Ueda wonders why Koichi wouldn’t let the show stop. At one point he thinks ‘if the show stops, I win’ but Koichi insists on continuing. What does he win though? Validation? The lead role?
Ueda does some great crying and screaming here.
Then the red cross scene comes. This is probably the most truncated section of the show missing a lot of the Ueda asking Rika to kill him parts and various Koichi is dead dances. We get the thriller style song and it ends with Koichi backlit (he gets this a lot).
Then we get to the rain, Matsutake has an umbrella and talks over Ueda’s scene of screaming and sobbing in the rain, Ueda does some nice wobbling vocals as part of the crying but when he gets to the actual song he gets counter sung over by Koichi. Ueda was acting his heart out here, crying, shaking, hunched in on himself, but no, Koichi has to get the attention, while backlit.
Rika and Beverly make brief appearances, Matsuura? Matsuzaki? leads Ueda off stage, still a sobbing mess. Which honestly makes me wonder how Ueda was managing the shows he was leading because what we see is not normal behaviour. Was Matsu slipping mood stabalizers in his drinks? Heck do the others suspect Ueda at this point? He’s not good at hiding his issues. Beverly and Rika talk a little about the year Koichi was in a coma.
Koichi reappears after his coma here we get the top hat and stick dance. Rika talks about how the last show with everyone was like a dream and how Ueda was having a hard time.
We get to Ueda’s second solo which is very truncated, includes a big jump off a raised stage, barely has he got going in the black outfit and rock song when Koichi takes the small chorus, adds a lot of his own and Ueda storms off mad.
The curtain closes in front of the orchestra and we get lots of short clips, lots of Koichi.
Rika, Beverly are in white with flowers, the boys come on in white, joke about Ueda’s awful yellow suit and then Ueda comes with a massive bouquet which the boys plunder from. He gives a brief angry shout then snaps back to calm in short order. Ueda talks about the pressure and continuing Beverly’s show. Beverely says Ueda did well and they all reminisce and talk about how they want Koichi back. Vom.
He reappears doing a lot of mugging and gurning, gets a short refrain. Ueda says Koichi was a friend. Cut lights. (He was not.)
We get the red drapes and Koichi does a little robot hand dance and goes flying (boring). There were big drums on the side of the stage.
After this Ueda comes on in silver and we get Koichi on his knees, Ueda behind doing a nice dance, I think KAT-TUN has something similar which looked great in that concert. We get the circular drum battle dance with Ueda really going for it. They show a little friendship.
Ueda steps aside as Koichi takes the centre and the boys come back for another dance. Another light cut.
The Beverly and Rika come and do a little dance with kimonos and Ueda, Koichi come with tunic wrap things, there’s some fan dancing and parasol dancing too. Bit of a mellow jam. Ueda and Rika have a little bit here. Koichi goes up and flies about with a parasol, wasted opportunity, honestly.
Ueda talks saying one person can’t make a stage play. Rika laments about Koichi The boys talk. Say won’t forget Koichi. Ueda screams the show must go on while on the raised stage Koichi is front and gets another solo.
The front stage rises up to the level of the back one, a star sparkles on the screen and we get another song refrain.
Cherry blossoms. Back to the white clothes scene, they give the whole you are not alone (一人じゃない) classic KAT-TUN.
They start laying the flowers, Ueda last, they all thank Koichi, Ueda extra loud.
Stairs appear at the back with Koichi on them and the women back up dancers. Another Koichi solo. Says he was trying to run alone when he should have run with the others. Ueda sings, boys sing, Koichi counter sings over. Beverly sings, Ueda sees Koichi steps back as Koichi comes forward. Koichi sings to Rika. The chorus forms up. Koichi runs back up the stairs, the other moves back and they sing the ending.
Cut lights, bows start, Koichi picks up the flowers. Lots of bows, final sing off.
Koichi gives a speech with an arrogant laugh, Ueda’s birthday gets mentioned, he had been looking down a fair bit and seeming stern. The cast sings happy birthday, though there was a slight pause at the name like they weren’t sure what to sing, he gave a short speech about being 37 and trying stuff, mentioned finding out stuff about SHOCK before joining the cast. Seems a little less stiff.
Koichi signals for the final bow. Ueda has hands firmly behind his back, Beverly, Rika and the boys wave. Curtain. There was a quiet applause probably from the crew, there was a thanks screen that mentioned the goods, you could buy goods in the video screen on the tab on the right of the screen.
I thought it was interesting that they changed it from the regular show, or at least the version I saw in February so there were scenes taking place three years after Koichi’s death and it did answer some questions I had after the Feb show, namely what happens next?
Well it seems like they deified Koichi, which I think I actually joked about. Rika seems to be pining for Koichi three years after the fact and they all seem to be obsessed with him even though, quite frankly he was quite the jerk.
He controlled the whole direction of the company, and when Ueda, while being a jerk himself, called him out on it, Ueda was the one who people were upset with. And seriously, this version amps up Ueda’s angryness quite a bit which makes me wonder, why didn’t the company fire him? They called him out for being a braggart, provoke him more than once when they had to know he would retaliate, and seriously that arm hold Ueda used is designed to hurt, I know he wasn’t applying full pressure on it, but that’s not the kind of thing you should be using on non-MA friends (when I did Jiu Jitsu that kind of thing was fair game in free practice, but you let go once the second they tap out, usually just after hitting the floor and the hold lasted quite a while after hitting the ground and there was no tap out here). Like, why not fire him? Heck, why didn’t he leave even for a little while? He was clearly not okay. Besides, as presented it’s not like Ueda is untalented, he probably could have gotten roles in other plays and productions and honestly being fired might force him to grow up a little and check his ego.
As a matter of fact, why did Beverly put up with any of this? She’s clearly the owner of the small theatre she has the power to shut down both Koichi and Ueda but she didn’t.
This version did address the issue that Koichi is apparently running the whole shebang and starring in it by saying he was pushing himself forward all the time, but that doesn’t really justify the way he took over Ueda’s chorus or dominates the whole of the show.
They bring up elements of the love triangle, but honestly, they could have cut it here as it doesn’t really do anything, as with the Feb version, its not like Rika particularly cares to give Ueda the time of day. And the way she still pines after Koichi three years after the fact. Koichi barely noticed her in the Feb version but here he’s grinding out his notes like he really misses her.
Rubs me the wrong way.
Honestly, this version really showed Koichi’s deficiencies, through all the emotional scenes he was grinding out the words and flexing all of his face and neck muscles like he was trying to overpower botox induced paralysis but for all his emoting he came across as arrogant. Ueda on the other hand barely had to scrunch his forehead because his voice and posture were working overtime to show every feeling he had.
Honestly, between the two versions of the show this year and vaguely remembered past versions, I’ve come to believe this play is an expression of Koichi’s ego with the ‘Eternal’ form representing how he wants to be remembered after his death, with a whole group of people endlessly pining for him long after his body is in the ground.
It raises more questions than it really answers honestly, why is Ueda still there? No-one reported him to the police for pre-meditated murder? The Johnny’s back ups say at the first appearance of the white with flowers scene that Ueda left early that morning, are they living in some sort of dorm? N.Y is expensive, but all of them live in the same place? And none of the core members have left the company in three years? And they let Ueda, a murderer, whom they have shown they are willing to provoke for cheap laughs, hang out with them, despite the fact he still clearly has issues?
It’s a fucking cult. Or at least some very unhealthy co-dependency nightmare.
Beverly seems to encourage all this? Why? Koichi may be talented, but there’s a thousand talented people on and off broadway, in their own words, ‘The Show Must Go On’, why isn’t it here? Surely its re-traumatising everyone involved by having Koichi’s murderer in their midst, someone who claimed Koichi was a friend? Why do they still idolize Koichi like Koichi’s own hubris didn’t play a part in his eventual death? Like Koichi hadn’t truncated all their careers by hogging all the best parts for himself?
To be very clear, I’m not saying he deserved to be murdered, but it was pretty clear he was determined to keep going his way in the face of all good sense and reason and the character (as well as the actor) did not have one iota of interest in sharing the spotlight except to further serve his own needs, he probably would have tried to dance through a broken ankle or similar to the point he ended up with several pins in the bone and fucked mobility in it.
And I think that’s a big issue with the show, they push the message of ‘the show must go on,’ but they never say when it should stop. As the ‘flashforwards’ show, its still Koichi’s show three years after the fact, the show hasn’t gone on with a new lead, it’s stayed the same. The show should have stopped for Ueda long before he was swapping fake swords for real ones. The show should have moved on for Rika when it became clear Koichi was never going to pay attention to her.
But the show isn’t for any of the ensemble. It’s for Koichi, the character and the actor. It is there to go on for him, showing him in the lead, to make him look good. And that’s just sad.
Slightly rejigged from the Feb show.
Let’s have a look.
The broadcast was smooth overall, I was running HD and there was only one tiny lag about one hour in. Probably helped I’m on a new computer with an SSD.
Got a link in my e-mail to the video, logged on about 17:56. There was a title card, with some musak that eventually turned to what sounded like an orchestra tuning up and showing different parts of the Umeda arts theatre. The view at the start was from the upperish stands. Transistioned to behind the screen in front of the stage showing the live orchestra as the intro started. Showed the credits, eternal producer and music credits followed by the cast.
Koichi Domoto was credited with the Story, Creation, Director and Starring.
There was a bunch of shots of the orchestra during this.
Koichi started the show in white, front and centre and there were cherry blossoms projected. Ueda ran on to near the centre, then Koichi walked back, reenacting the ending. Ueda picks up the necklace, in the show Rika gives Koichi a necklace and gets it back when he dies, and gives it to Rika. Koichi looks on. There’s a short dance here. Koichi moves back to the front and gets a spotlight and does the ‘Show must go on speech’ even mentioning he took it from the usual person who gives it (theatre owner). Koichi does the first song with some projections of him on the back screen over the orchestra.
It goes into a jazzy dance number with Ueda the back up dancers led by Matsuzaka? Then Rika in yellow comes. Then koichi in white. At the end Ueda does the Yankee crouch. Ueda and the others drop back and Koichi does a song with Rika in a red dress and other women dancers. The guys come back in red jackets. The semi famous car part is projected on the back screen.
Ueda has a short buddy moment with the back ups. At this point we get a talk to the audience part where Koichi points out that Ueda is not happy. Why Ueda cannot tell us this himself is not addressed.
We go to backstage and the scene is pretty similar to the original show, Ueda gets his first lines here, he’s pretty happy and brags a bit about his work but the rest seem to ignore him in favour of adoring Koichi. Ueda even takes a moment to lay down dramatically on the box at one point in exasperation. I feel for him here. Matsu talks, Rika sings to Koichi who is on a ladder. Beverly (theatre owner) talks happily.
Ueda asks for Koichi’s next idea Koichi does the Shakespeare part, everyone goes WTF, Ueda dissents, Beverly talks him down. Pretty similar to the regular show.
Ueda then gets provoked into a fight with some of the back ups and does a full arm lock take down (it looks like something I learned when I did Jiu Jutsu way back). I know he’s supposed to be the jerk here, and his reaction is outsized but, surely this is a case of don’t clown around unless you want to get clowned? I mean, this is treated basically as a regular occurrence. Why hasn’t Beverly told the guys to knock it off and given Ueda a talking to about proportionate response? Or even a warning? I know guys fight is a cliché but in a setting like this, they wouldn’t fight to hurt.
Rika talks about how Ueda pushes everyone away and runs off. I mean, half the cast seem to treat provoking Ueda as a game and the other half seem to let it happen, of course he pushes everyone away. Any reasonable person would have left ages ago. Anyways as Ueda makes his proposal to Rika, the boys conspire to put Beverly in front of him (this is really a jerk move). Beverly tells him off a little, talks about Rika wanting Koichi.
Go to rooftop scene, Rika is facing forward, Koichi sings to her directly, a lot of gurning here, mugging, you could see the veins on his neck, it was not a good look. The yoga dancing was back but none of the black dancers from earlier this year were there. Rika holds out the necklace but then it becomes apparent this is three years after Koichi’s death and she’s still mourning him. She puts the necklace on quickly when the others come. Weirdly, Ueda is there, gets angry then almost immediately goes full contrite apology to one of the back up dancers. WTF. He’s still there? He had a full breakdown and killed Koichi and he’s still with them? Just urgh. What.
Beverly talked about it here.
Then she pulls the Imperial Garden Theatre card and we go to Ueda being confident and angry that Koichi is the theatre savant doing everything and he gets the short end despite his hard work. He talks about being able to do everything Koichi can but Koichi not giving him the chance, which is true, Koichi basically admits that later on. This is exactly what happened in real life. None of the other cast get a big poster or a scene on wires or even really a solo to call their own.
Go to Koichi grey jacket performance with the Johnnys back ups plus red dress dancers. Koichi leads the chorus including Ueda. Koichi sings a bit while Ueda and Rika do a short dance a quick pick up and hold then separate. Koichi and Rika then duet with Koichi leading. Ueda joins in the with the full dance. Someone says let the show begin and the lights go down. Koichi takes off his jacket, undoes his bow tie and unbuttons his shirt, I’m not sure if he’s supposed to be alive here or not, I think alive and he’s maybe doubting himself as he wanders the stage. I found myself not caring at all about his musings.
Ueda then gets a nice boogie down number with a purple outfit that mixes rap with singing. His rap comes pretty harsh but his singing is good here and throughout. He seems very confident in this scene. A couple of the Johnnys back up people get a couple of lines in here. I can’t remember if that was in the original show, but it looked good here as it showed he was capable of sharing the spotlight with minor players while Koichi I don’t think let his chorus have little inserts like that (excepting duets). This honestly seemed like a missed opportunity as it was never pointed out in the show that Ueda, for all his anger is willing to put a little effort into the others while Koichi is always focused on himself. Ueda gets into a nice rhythm here, rolling his hips and seeming like he is loving every minute. There’s a drummer on the back stage, raised which he gets up close with after doing a nice little jump up. There’s some nice spin kicks here and he did that note rolling thing he does twice. Is this a plot hole? If you’re trying to create a good guy-bad guy dichotomy then surely Ueda is the good guy here? He can share the spotlight with others by sharing lines while Koichi holds it all to himself. But the play acts like Koichi is this overburdened saint and Ueda is an impetuous upstart.
Lights down, there’s some very sharp echo steps and Koichi comes on and we get the red glove dance. Its pretty similar to before except this time Ueda doesn’t even bother with buttoning his shirt, I’m sure much to everyone’s pleasure. His anger comes through very clearly here though I don’t think the reasoning was clear. In the regular play, its a stage hand mess up but I don’t think they said that here. Then everyone gets into this V formation with Koichi in the middle and we have this talking head bit as they all shout their feelings. It comes across a little weird compared to the scene in the standard play though it was probably for social distance sake.
They talk about the stress, Koichi wants to quit, Ueda says he will make a great show. Why doesn’t Koichi quit? This doesn’t really seem to be addressed. I mean, he could. And its not like he seemed to feel any obligation to the rest of the cast. Why not quit?
We get the buzzer for the second act of the show within a show. Rika talks about being sad that her last conversation with Koichi was unhappy.
Beverly, Ueda and Koichi have a conversation in low light. Beverly gives a speech about playing nice, Ueda is angry. I’m having a hard time disagreeing with him here.
Ueda gets his a bit of an angry song then Koichi jumps in and Beverly does a bit too. Ueda says Koichi is awful he’s very angry and upset but Koichi is singing over him. Ueda says he wants him gone.
They sing the same at the end and they’re both clearly upset.
Beverly tries to comfort Ueda saying people are weak. Ueda says he’s not here? Or he’s alone? And he won’t give up. Why not? He doesn’t have to give up performing, just this company. Its clear he’s talented enough to hold his own against Koichi so why doesn’t he leave especially when he’s clearly the butt of the company’s jokes?
Which brings me to the part that really bugs me, Why is Ueda still with the company? He’s clearly not happy and he’s causing scenes with the lead actor. The chorus seem to take great pleasure in provoking him and he violently rises to the bait everytime. Why hasn’t he been fired, long before now? I mean its not like the company is short of talent, they could fire him. They could be rid of him and the company drama level would drop a good amount. Koichi is still a problem, of course, as is the rest of the cast, but getting rid of the person who antagonises the lead and everyone else seems to dislike the most is a good first step.
Back to the play. We get the big fight scene here. Some of the more dynamic parts are shown on projectors with the actors doing live freeze frames, Ueda doesn’t get one for whatever reason which is a shame. This part is very truncated. Instead of the tattoo Ueda has a necklace here as a replacement.
Ueda looks great here. Koichi does not touch him at all, and honestly it shows. Ueda moves around his weapon amazingly, his body just flows with the fight and he looks great as the scrappy, mad bandit. Eventually they show the video of the stairs scene with Ueda and Koichi in casual clothes spotlit below.
Ueda wonders why Koichi wouldn’t let the show stop. At one point he thinks ‘if the show stops, I win’ but Koichi insists on continuing. What does he win though? Validation? The lead role?
Ueda does some great crying and screaming here.
Then the red cross scene comes. This is probably the most truncated section of the show missing a lot of the Ueda asking Rika to kill him parts and various Koichi is dead dances. We get the thriller style song and it ends with Koichi backlit (he gets this a lot).
Then we get to the rain, Matsutake has an umbrella and talks over Ueda’s scene of screaming and sobbing in the rain, Ueda does some nice wobbling vocals as part of the crying but when he gets to the actual song he gets counter sung over by Koichi. Ueda was acting his heart out here, crying, shaking, hunched in on himself, but no, Koichi has to get the attention, while backlit.
Rika and Beverly make brief appearances, Matsuura? Matsuzaki? leads Ueda off stage, still a sobbing mess. Which honestly makes me wonder how Ueda was managing the shows he was leading because what we see is not normal behaviour. Was Matsu slipping mood stabalizers in his drinks? Heck do the others suspect Ueda at this point? He’s not good at hiding his issues. Beverly and Rika talk a little about the year Koichi was in a coma.
Koichi reappears after his coma here we get the top hat and stick dance. Rika talks about how the last show with everyone was like a dream and how Ueda was having a hard time.
We get to Ueda’s second solo which is very truncated, includes a big jump off a raised stage, barely has he got going in the black outfit and rock song when Koichi takes the small chorus, adds a lot of his own and Ueda storms off mad.
The curtain closes in front of the orchestra and we get lots of short clips, lots of Koichi.
Rika, Beverly are in white with flowers, the boys come on in white, joke about Ueda’s awful yellow suit and then Ueda comes with a massive bouquet which the boys plunder from. He gives a brief angry shout then snaps back to calm in short order. Ueda talks about the pressure and continuing Beverly’s show. Beverely says Ueda did well and they all reminisce and talk about how they want Koichi back. Vom.
He reappears doing a lot of mugging and gurning, gets a short refrain. Ueda says Koichi was a friend. Cut lights. (He was not.)
We get the red drapes and Koichi does a little robot hand dance and goes flying (boring). There were big drums on the side of the stage.
After this Ueda comes on in silver and we get Koichi on his knees, Ueda behind doing a nice dance, I think KAT-TUN has something similar which looked great in that concert. We get the circular drum battle dance with Ueda really going for it. They show a little friendship.
Ueda steps aside as Koichi takes the centre and the boys come back for another dance. Another light cut.
The Beverly and Rika come and do a little dance with kimonos and Ueda, Koichi come with tunic wrap things, there’s some fan dancing and parasol dancing too. Bit of a mellow jam. Ueda and Rika have a little bit here. Koichi goes up and flies about with a parasol, wasted opportunity, honestly.
Ueda talks saying one person can’t make a stage play. Rika laments about Koichi The boys talk. Say won’t forget Koichi. Ueda screams the show must go on while on the raised stage Koichi is front and gets another solo.
The front stage rises up to the level of the back one, a star sparkles on the screen and we get another song refrain.
Cherry blossoms. Back to the white clothes scene, they give the whole you are not alone (一人じゃない) classic KAT-TUN.
They start laying the flowers, Ueda last, they all thank Koichi, Ueda extra loud.
Stairs appear at the back with Koichi on them and the women back up dancers. Another Koichi solo. Says he was trying to run alone when he should have run with the others. Ueda sings, boys sing, Koichi counter sings over. Beverly sings, Ueda sees Koichi steps back as Koichi comes forward. Koichi sings to Rika. The chorus forms up. Koichi runs back up the stairs, the other moves back and they sing the ending.
Cut lights, bows start, Koichi picks up the flowers. Lots of bows, final sing off.
Koichi gives a speech with an arrogant laugh, Ueda’s birthday gets mentioned, he had been looking down a fair bit and seeming stern. The cast sings happy birthday, though there was a slight pause at the name like they weren’t sure what to sing, he gave a short speech about being 37 and trying stuff, mentioned finding out stuff about SHOCK before joining the cast. Seems a little less stiff.
Koichi signals for the final bow. Ueda has hands firmly behind his back, Beverly, Rika and the boys wave. Curtain. There was a quiet applause probably from the crew, there was a thanks screen that mentioned the goods, you could buy goods in the video screen on the tab on the right of the screen.
I thought it was interesting that they changed it from the regular show, or at least the version I saw in February so there were scenes taking place three years after Koichi’s death and it did answer some questions I had after the Feb show, namely what happens next?
Well it seems like they deified Koichi, which I think I actually joked about. Rika seems to be pining for Koichi three years after the fact and they all seem to be obsessed with him even though, quite frankly he was quite the jerk.
He controlled the whole direction of the company, and when Ueda, while being a jerk himself, called him out on it, Ueda was the one who people were upset with. And seriously, this version amps up Ueda’s angryness quite a bit which makes me wonder, why didn’t the company fire him? They called him out for being a braggart, provoke him more than once when they had to know he would retaliate, and seriously that arm hold Ueda used is designed to hurt, I know he wasn’t applying full pressure on it, but that’s not the kind of thing you should be using on non-MA friends (when I did Jiu Jitsu that kind of thing was fair game in free practice, but you let go once the second they tap out, usually just after hitting the floor and the hold lasted quite a while after hitting the ground and there was no tap out here). Like, why not fire him? Heck, why didn’t he leave even for a little while? He was clearly not okay. Besides, as presented it’s not like Ueda is untalented, he probably could have gotten roles in other plays and productions and honestly being fired might force him to grow up a little and check his ego.
As a matter of fact, why did Beverly put up with any of this? She’s clearly the owner of the small theatre she has the power to shut down both Koichi and Ueda but she didn’t.
This version did address the issue that Koichi is apparently running the whole shebang and starring in it by saying he was pushing himself forward all the time, but that doesn’t really justify the way he took over Ueda’s chorus or dominates the whole of the show.
They bring up elements of the love triangle, but honestly, they could have cut it here as it doesn’t really do anything, as with the Feb version, its not like Rika particularly cares to give Ueda the time of day. And the way she still pines after Koichi three years after the fact. Koichi barely noticed her in the Feb version but here he’s grinding out his notes like he really misses her.
Rubs me the wrong way.
Honestly, this version really showed Koichi’s deficiencies, through all the emotional scenes he was grinding out the words and flexing all of his face and neck muscles like he was trying to overpower botox induced paralysis but for all his emoting he came across as arrogant. Ueda on the other hand barely had to scrunch his forehead because his voice and posture were working overtime to show every feeling he had.
Honestly, between the two versions of the show this year and vaguely remembered past versions, I’ve come to believe this play is an expression of Koichi’s ego with the ‘Eternal’ form representing how he wants to be remembered after his death, with a whole group of people endlessly pining for him long after his body is in the ground.
It raises more questions than it really answers honestly, why is Ueda still there? No-one reported him to the police for pre-meditated murder? The Johnny’s back ups say at the first appearance of the white with flowers scene that Ueda left early that morning, are they living in some sort of dorm? N.Y is expensive, but all of them live in the same place? And none of the core members have left the company in three years? And they let Ueda, a murderer, whom they have shown they are willing to provoke for cheap laughs, hang out with them, despite the fact he still clearly has issues?
It’s a fucking cult. Or at least some very unhealthy co-dependency nightmare.
Beverly seems to encourage all this? Why? Koichi may be talented, but there’s a thousand talented people on and off broadway, in their own words, ‘The Show Must Go On’, why isn’t it here? Surely its re-traumatising everyone involved by having Koichi’s murderer in their midst, someone who claimed Koichi was a friend? Why do they still idolize Koichi like Koichi’s own hubris didn’t play a part in his eventual death? Like Koichi hadn’t truncated all their careers by hogging all the best parts for himself?
To be very clear, I’m not saying he deserved to be murdered, but it was pretty clear he was determined to keep going his way in the face of all good sense and reason and the character (as well as the actor) did not have one iota of interest in sharing the spotlight except to further serve his own needs, he probably would have tried to dance through a broken ankle or similar to the point he ended up with several pins in the bone and fucked mobility in it.
And I think that’s a big issue with the show, they push the message of ‘the show must go on,’ but they never say when it should stop. As the ‘flashforwards’ show, its still Koichi’s show three years after the fact, the show hasn’t gone on with a new lead, it’s stayed the same. The show should have stopped for Ueda long before he was swapping fake swords for real ones. The show should have moved on for Rika when it became clear Koichi was never going to pay attention to her.
But the show isn’t for any of the ensemble. It’s for Koichi, the character and the actor. It is there to go on for him, showing him in the lead, to make him look good. And that’s just sad.