The Legend of King Arthur (Moon 2016)
I wish I could've seen it again...! I also cannot stop listening to the French soundtrack.
Background:
The Legend of King Arthur is adapted from the French musical of the same name, La Legende du Roi Arthur by Dove Attia, which only debuted last year! The original musical is fantastic -- some of the most talented voices are harnessed for beautiful songs and the sets and costumes are to die for. The DVD is a mere fifteen euros on Amazon France but there are several song recordings on YouTube, both official and unofficial (seems like the theater was super lenient with people filming). Dove Attia's musical actually covers only the first half of the legend* of King Arthur. His final battle with Mordred (his illegimate son borne from he and his half-sister) and his death are not touched upon, and neither is the "Holy Grail" subplot.
*As a medievalist, I feel the need to state that there is no one [true] legend. Arthurian literature itself is a genre, stretching from archaic Welsh histories, to medieval manuscripts, to 19th century poetry. When I say "the legend," I'm referring to general themes and plots that occur across a number of Arthurian sources.
The Story:
The Takarazuka version directed by Ishida-sensei generally follows the plot of the original musical. The few exceptions are added dialogue to offset scrapped songs and some supplementary characters, like Arianrhod, the goddess of young girls (Yukarino Koyuki).
With the help of Merlin (Chinami Karan), Uther Pendragon becomes King and takes the wife of his former enemy. Arthur (Tamaki Ryou) is born but is fostered and grows up with his incompetent brother, Kay (Kashiro Aoi). Following his destiny, he is able to pull Excalibur out of the stone, confirming that he is the true King. As he did with his father, Merlin advises Arthur along with his Roundtable of Knights.
Meanwhile Prince Meliagrance (Kizuki Yuuma) refuses to acknowledge Arthur as king. The two duel and after losing, he relunctantly accepts him as his ruler. Arthur's kingdom grows and he helps out Leodegrance (Ayazuki Seri), a king of the neighboring lands. Arthur and Guinevere (Manaki Reika), Leodegrance's daughter, fall in love. Elsewhere, Morgane (Miya Rurika), Arthur's half-sister, is plotting her revenge. She shows up at Arthur and Guinevere's wedding and using magical puppetry tells the true story of Uther Pendragon's conquest: how he had actually taken the disguise of Morgane's father and raped her mother, who is also Arthur's mother. Finding a common enemy, she plays upon Meliagrance's resentment and the two agree to take down Arthur.
One day, Lancelot of the Lake (Asami Jun) shows up at Camelot, with the desire to join Arthur's Round Table. He becomes smitten with Guinevere and Guinevere finds herself falling for the young knight. To create chaos, Morgane takes the form of Guinevere and has sex with Arthur. After impregnating herself, she reverts back to her normal form, leaving him shocked. She also uses magic to make Guinevere and Lancelot fall deeper in love. Meliagrance kidnaps Guinevere and Lancelot rescues her, however Morgane brings Arthur and the rest to the scene and the two are implicated. Due to the magic and emotional breakdown, Guinevere goes mad. She and Lancelot are to be executed but Arthur intervenes, having mercy on both of them. It ends with Arthur vowing to move forward despite what has happened and fulfill his destiny as King.
The Actresses:
Tamaki Ryou as King Arthur: I really admired Tamakichi's portrayal of Arthur since it aligned with my own perception of him. That is, a young man suddenly handed a crown and a destiny. He tries to rule justly and must deal with the consequences of his ancestors, but he is also young and wants to love. She conveyed these various, often conflicted emotions perfectly. Her singing still needs a little work (I feel like she's often singing higher than her range) but she's getting there. Congratulations to her on her debut as Top Star! ✨
Manaki Reika as Guinevere: Chapi was a darling Guinevere. As with Arthur, Guinevere also experiences a wide variety of emotions -- from innocent giddiness when she meets Arthur, to regality once she becomes queen, and then perplexity (and giddiness again) when she finds herself falling for Lancelot. The penultimate scene when she goes insane is also quite jarring. Chapi's voice is deeper and she couldn't quite hit all of the high notes in "Au Diable" but she was adorable nonetheless. I would also reiterate that it's great to see such chemistry, even if the two characters weren't necessarily a couple.
Miya Rurika as Morgane: In my opinion, Miyaruri stole the show. She was vengeful and owned her sex. She was cruel and not afraid to show her ecstasy. As an onnayaku, Miyaruri's Morgane was neither exaggerated nor comedic, which was a relief as that's what tends to happen with otokoyaku play women. Her costumes and makeup were fabulous. And she could SING. A+++++
Asami Jun as Lancelot: Aasa is basically Lancelot so she had no trouble pulling off the naievity of a passionate young knight. She's got a wonderful voice and with Lancelot's songs being on the more melodramatic end, she appealed to our angsty teenage selves who were once in love. This one's fallen off the star track unfortunately, but her voice will be a nice asset to Yukigumi.
Kizuki Yuuma as Meliagrance: Likely due to Takarazuka politics, some of Meliagrance's scenes and songs were attributed to Morgane. That being said, Mayupon played the vengeful prince very very well. Her stage makeup was fabulous -- it became more skeletal as Meliagrance grew increasingly vindictive and allied with Morgane. One of my favorite songs was "Advienne que pourra:" when the two duet -- you can see him become overtaken with Morgane as the song progresses and he gives into revenge. There is also a fantastic lift!
As for the others, most of the otokoyaku were Knight of the Round Table #123 (to be fair, it's better than that and they actually had [real] names) or Court Lady #345. They randomly added this "goddess of young girls" (Yukarino Koyuki) who I found to be too obnoxious and took away from Merlin's role as adviser and magical adversary to Morgane.
Overall:
As in the original musical, there was relatively equal weight given to each character, which made this a good ohirome kouen to test the waters and reception to Tamakichi. The source material is amazing so it has that going for it automatically. I'm not sure if it was due to the nature of the original songs in this production or their very similar ranges but I felt that Tamakichi and Chapi didn't sound particularly well together while dueting. If Grand Hotel is better, then they were probably just struggling with the complex songs. The post-show revue was unnecessary fluff but alas. It was amusing to see Miyaruri reappear as an otokoyaku haha.
After watching the Sky Stage report, I couldn't help but smile over how excited everyone was -- they were all nearly talking over each other and the excitement was high -- everyone just seems happy and to be enjoying themselves. I'm really looking forward to Tamaki-gumi.
(Original Post @ Tumblr)