Participants: Takada Kenji, Koike Shuuichirou, Haruno Sumire, Sakurano Ayane, Ritsu Tomomi, Hoshihara Misao, Rika Masumi, Natsumi You, Matobu Sei, Sou Kazuho, Aine Harei, and Misuzu Aki.


Takada Kenji: From Sept. 21st through Oct. 29th is Flower Troupe's Grand Theater performance of Koike Shuuichirou's Musical Picaresque Adieu Marseille — To Marseille With Love. This show is the sayonara show for Haruno Sumire, the leading otokoyaku who has been drawing Flower Troupe along with her for so long. Koike-sensei was in charge of her ohirome performance in 2002, and so has been in charge of two critical junctures for her. Ritsu Tomomi and Hoshihara Misao from Senka will be making an appearance, but most sadly, this will be Ritsu-san's final Takarazuka Kagekidan performance. Also, fukukumichou Rika Masumi will be moving to Senka with this performance.

I believe this musical, set in 1930s Marseille and overflowing with picturesque romance, with the Grand Staircase chosen as the station at Marseille, the wonderful music, the dance scenes, and so on, will truly entertain the audience with its contents. The power of all of the members current Hanagumi is concentrated on Haruno-san, and I think they want to send the overflowing allure of this show to all of the audience, so everyone, please treat it well.


The Balance Between Brilliance and Sorrow

Koike Shuichiro: This time, for Haruno-san's sayonara performance, I thought of creating a work which fit in with everything she had performed up to this point. A sayonara performance is one which shows the types of characters that someone has done before, and moreover, the situations she has encountered, but this time I'm thinking of a show in which Osa's warm and brilliant allure that we haven't seen often is brought to life. Haruno Sumire has such balance between her sorrow and clean brilliance. Coincident with the emergence of that romantic allure, the work was set in the first half of the twentieth century, in Europe. I wanted the experience of the play to be like you had actually gone to Marseille, with Marseille not as a resort area like Nice or Cannes, but a commercial harbor. Marseilles, as a Meditteranean harbor, has a varied history; it was a little squalid, with a lot of criminals. It's been portrayed in various movies, and I thought, would it be interesting to have some villains swaggering around Marseille, breathing heavily in the streets of the town?

Haruno Sumire: I can feel how alluring the role that I've received this time, Gerard Clemment, is. There is meaning in this being the performance that I'm graduating from Takarazuka with, but now, in the middle of rehearsals, it doesn't carry that kind of weight. However, for my final performance I had of course a desire to leave a legacy as a Takarazuka otokoyaku. Because I tackled this role with that in mind, I think the role of Gerard is all the more alluring to me.

Koike: With Osa thinking in those terms, I'm certain it'll be a well-done show, and I think the work will come to life.

Haruno: Gerard is really brilliant, but it's not just brilliance, he is also burdened with secrets and his isolation.... I'd like to be able to create a balance between those things.


Getting Off at Marseille Station

Haruno: Gerard's first entrance is the scene when he gets off at the Marseille station for the first time in 14 years, and sings "Bonsoir Marseille" on top of the Grand Staircase, but during rehearsals when we were working on the play, it was changed to more of the feel of taking a turn around the ginkyo.... It feels really good when I go around the ginkyo, moreover it has gained the feel of "this is where I'm going to give it my all!"

Koike: Of course a song enlivens a scene and work, and Haruno Sumire is a very alluring star, so I think a dramatic entrance is best. I think the audience would really agree with me on that. Osa doesn't come out at all between the curtain's rise and that entrance scene, so I think there will also be people thinking "huh?", but with her entrance she's then on stage without respite....

Haruno: I don't enter for a while, so as I was looking at the script I also thought, "I don't assume much importance" (laughs).

Koike: (laughs)

Haruno: Now I feel that I want to clearly imprint the man named Gerard Clemment entirely with my personality, and properly bring forth my own Gerard.

Koike: As I thought, Osa is a very forward-facing person (laughs). What about you, Sakurano-san?

Sakurano Ayane: Marianne Lauzet, whom I play, begins in a company that discriminates against women, and works for recognition of women's suffrage. Even if you look in a book on French history, there isn't much written in them about women's suffrage, so although it probably hadn't become such a big problem, I think it was a very strict time period along those lines. To really feel the emotions of the women of that time is difficult, but I want to probe more and more into Marianne's strong feelings as she lived through it, and the pride she has in women. Although sensei has an artistic side, I received polite guidance from him, and because of that I came to see clearly which parts and subjects of mine were lacking. And so I learned these things without fail.

Koike: In a "gang musical", so to speak, there are lots of places for voluptuous neesans, and also many of their opposites — young ladies. But it's not interesting at all to reduce the heroine to a pattern. So when I was considering it, I thought, why not do something a little different? I learned that even after the end of the First World War, women in France still didn't have the right to vote, and was completely surprised.... I thought this might be interesting, and made the heroine along these lines. As an investigator for the international police force, Gerard works every time with different people, but he's definitely never had an opportunity to meet a woman like Marianne. I think you realize this as well — the way Marianne lives her life so earnestly has charm.

Sakurano: Yes.

Haruno: Marianne makes Gerard sing about myths at one point, but (to Sakurano) does Marianne actually know the myths?

Sakurano: She knows them.

Haruno: She was so cruel to make him sing all by himself that I thought she didn't know them (laughs).

Sakurano: I'm sorry (laughs).

Matobu Sei: And after that, he forgets something...

Haruno: (laughs).

Matobu: Gerard brings it to Marianne, doesn't he? (laughs)

Haruno: Yes. "I forgot something," he says.

Matobu: It's a scene you have to watch carefully (laughs). It's the kind of forgotten thing that you can get with Takarazuka (laughs).

Haruno: It was a good idea, sensei.

Koike: (laughs). And what did you think of Marianne when you saw her?

Haruno: Gerard was strongly influenced by his mother, wasn't he? He grew up watching her, and even though they were separated, he continued to worry about her. Also, he remembers her and how she was always saying, "I might be alone now, but a time will come when I can live well, along with my child", and I think that really made an impression on him. And among all that he meets Marianne and feels a strong nostalgia for his mother, and I suppose that captivates him.

Koike: That's true. Well then, what does Marianne think of Gerard?

Sakurano: A part of Marianne, like all women who make their own way, is prejudiced against frivolous men, and when she first meets Gerard, it's to see a scene of him kissing a woman for the purpose of rescuing her, and in her subconscious she reacts sharply against him, thinking, "This is a man who has nothing to do with my way of life." But when she realizes how much he loves Marseille, and then again later when he encourages with all his heart people who walk alone on their paths, working towards their goals, and because she observes his own self confidence, I think that she naturally becomes attracted to him. However, that love isn't the kind which makes her stick to him, but rather in the end they walk down different paths, and so that's the shape of the love I'd like to express.


The Individuals Around Gerard

Matobu: I play Simon Bellard. Now, Simon has become the boss of the Orion faction, which has taken control of the red-light district. As a child, his mother was very weak, and they were very poor, so he was working part-time jobs, while always dreaming of some day buying the place with all the pretty ladies and growing up. Well, that's all acted by the actress playing the part of Simon as a boy (laughs), but Simon sincerely prays for that dream.... I think that sort of strength has a lot to do with his personality. Outside he has the pin-stripes and showiness, but on the inside he is sweet and genuine, and there's a playful side to him as well. In the prologue his entrance is very show-offish, but as you go along in the second half his character changes more and more... (laughs)

Everyone: (explosive laughter)

Koike: When he stops making a profit because the casino he manages is closed down, his eyes are opened to new hobbies (laughs). Simon has taken control of the red-light district, and when the work turns to the actual underworld, I think in the end it becomes about the money, rather than the romance. Because of this, to lighten the tone a little I thought I should make Simon's objective not taking over the town and ripping off money, but to create a place where lots of guests can gather and take it easy.

Matobu: Yes.

Haruno: In the course of his work for the international criminal police organization, Gerard unexpectedly returns to his hometown of Marseilles, and learns that Orion and Scorpio and their like from long ago have become a force to be reckoned with. He is abruptly reunited with his childhood friend Simon, and although he had changed outwardly, when they talked Gerard feels, "Ah, it is Simon after all...." Now they're splendid adults, but when they sing together they begin to act more like children.

Matobu: Yes (laughs).

Koike: Well then, to the actress who plays Philippe Besson, the founder of the International Criminal Police Organization. Ritsu-san, please.

Ritsu Tomomi: This time the image which came to my mind in a flash was the French actor Jean Gabin.

Koike: That's true, but the younger people probably don't know him (laughs).

Ritsu: Ah, that's right (laughs). I have to make my presence felt, the sum of all the important parts, and using the movies as a model, imagining those sorts of people, I hope to create a Philippe who is true to myself. This is my final show, and fortuitously it is with Hanagumi; my hatsubutai was with Hanagumi, and after that I spent ten years in Hanagumi, so I think there's a hint of youth in it. This time I also have a small chance to dance.

Koike: Because Tomomi-san (Ritsu) is really a wonderful dancer.

Haruno: When we were working on the choreography, Maeda Kiyomi-sensei said that Tomomi-san was the quickest to learn the choreography, and the one who moved the best.

Ritsu: I tried my best when we were working on the choreography.

Haruno: When Gerard was a boy, he was put into a reform school so that he wouldn't reveal a certain secret, and it was there that he suddenly met Philippe, and was scouted as a criminal investigator. He always kept silent about the thing he couldn't speak of, and because of that it's as if he is burdened by his isolation, and that type of life is indelibly ingrained in him. But I think he has always had the strength that he uses to ride out his difficulties.

Ritsu: I think Philippe also had the power to see through to that.

Haruno: That's true.

Hoshihara Misao: Gerard was placed into the reform school because of us, wasn't he? (laughs)

Natsumi: That's right (laughs).

Everyone: (laughs)

Koike: Well then, Hoshihara-san, if you please.

Hoshihara: This time my role is Police Inspector Belland, a methodical villain (laughs).

Everyone: (explosive laughter)

Hoshihara: I can't say more than that now, but.... (laughs).

Koike: But in the scene that takes place 14 years before, you took a little walk with Natsumi-san.

Hoshihara: (laughs)

Koike: The child roles become adults, but--

Hoshihara: But we stay the same.

Natsumi You: We gain years, but we don't change, hm? (laughs)

Koike: You'll make yourselves a little younger fourteen years before...?

Hoshihara: That's where we'll make ourselves youthful.

Koike: On the Takarazuka stage, ugly reality is usually disguised, but here I thought that if we could capture the impact of the image, the story will be much more three-dimensional. Because without shadowy places in a work, you can't see the sunlight, so I'm really depending on you to be one of those shadows, Hoshihara-san!

Hoshihara: I'll do my best!

Koike: Well then, Natsumi-san, please.

Natsumi: This musical is Haruno Sumire's final stage, but rather than a performance made to adorn the end of Osa's era, I want to turn this performance into the very best of the Osa era shows. Some time ago, Osa said that she wanted to bequeath her own version of otokoyaku, and now countless shows later, I hear from the underclassmen from all directions that "Osa's back is beautiful."

Haruno: (laughs)

Natsumi: And this is because they watch her back so closely, meaning they watch Osa closely, and learn from her. This is the "Sayonara Performance", and it has become sentimental, and a precious thing that we won't let slip away. Now is the only moment that we will have to spend together with these members, so that everyone is holding the time precious and wanting to put all of their love into this show. Speaking of my role as Richard, boss of the Scorpio gang, when I listened to the script for the first time, it was all posturing (pulling out my gun) and posturing (hitting), and I was enraptured....

Everyone: (laughs)

Natsumi: Because I fundamentally love villains (laughs), I suppose you could say that it stimulated my instincts, and the instant I saw the script I felt, "this is an interesting show." As Hoshihara-sempai said, her character of Belland is "someone who does their villainy methodically", Simon is "a pure-hearted gangster with a dream", Sou's Maurice "although he has darkness in his past, is in some respects an honest villain", Misuzu's Giolamo, "although he seems to be missing something, is a cool-headed and clever gangster", with all of that, among all of these villains I am the least clever, and I want everything, and that is my greatest difference. Although the boss of the Orion faction (Simon) is young, he gets things his own way, which annoys me, and although I plan to triumph over him, at the end of the day it seems that I'm defeated in some back alley.

Koike: (laughs)

Natsumi: That's the kind of feeling I want to bring to life in the character. Although that scene fourteen years before is slightly cut off, I want to play it so that after fourteen years have passed, to a certain extent things remain unchanged.

Ritsu: You've really analyzed it.

Haruno: It really is amazing.

Natsumi: And also, I was really happy to be able to play "Tourist 1".

Koike: Mito-san (Rika) too.

Rika Masumi: Yes.

Natsumi: It's been a while since I had a "1" or "2" kind of part.

Hoshihara: With you two out there, it's obviously completely different. Point by point I can feel the effect of the spice.

Koike: Well then Rika-san, please.

Rika: I play Madeleine, the mother of Osa's Gerard. She raised Gerard on her own, and although they were poor, her son grew up to be wonderfully obedient and smart. I think she feels as if he is her joy for living. Even though he was arrested, she loves her son so much that I think she was a strong and big hearted mother, don't you? The recollection scene in the Marseilles soap factory really has a "musical" feel to it, and it's a very fun scene. There are a lot of underclassmen musumeyaku in that scene, and I want each one of them to be a strong mother, and when they are all so lively, I'm happy. This is also my final show as a Hanagumisei. I know I'll be able to see everyone in Hanagumi after this, though, and I look forward to that.

Koike: Gerard's mother was a person who lived whole-heartedly, and that influenced his view of women, so that his mother, herself, becomes a large part of his background. Even though you do not directly appear with Osa, because you are in his recollection scene, I think you are linked to Gerard in his heart.

Rika: (to Osa) Please think of me very, very deeply.

Haruno: All right (laughs).

Koike: Next, let's have Sou-san.

Sou Kazuho: My character, Maurice de Broca, is a member of the city council who wants to be mayor. When he was a boy, his father (whom everyone said would be mayor in the future) was killed for a certain reason, so he thinks that he'll do whatever he needs to avenge his father, and become mayor.... If you divided the characters into large groups, Maurice would be put into the villains' group, but how will this character seem among this group...? I want to create his character as a person in contrast to Gerard, while integrating Marianne with the two of them.

Koike: I think that Sou-san's strong point is playing relatively intellectual and logical characters. This time there is a secret in Maurice's background; the thing that drives him. In the end he recognizes it, and I think that probably after that he will change how he lives. While he was tutoring Marianne, somehow or other he found himself wanting to capture her attention, and I think that part of him is very teacher-like. Well then, Aine-san, go ahead.

Aine Harei: I play the woman Jeanne, who was hired by Simon to work in the music hall he manages. Because Jeanne is captivated by the pure human kindness in Simon, I don't think she is merely a self-absorbed woman. Somewhere in her there is that same pureness. This is my first time playing a female role in a main production, and so right now everything is full of discoveries of mistakes, but I want to take in everything from my drawers without running away. As an otokoyaku, playing a woman gives me an enormous chance to learn, and I'm really happy to have a role like this.

Koike: Marianne and Jeanne are both women through and through, in a positive way, and I think the contrast between them is good. Jeanne is young, but even so she has had a lot of life experiences, which is what I'd like to see you project. Because now we can see a surprising innocence and beauty.

Aine: (laughs)

Koike: Frankly, I think it's good that you bring your own visible style to this female role.

Aine: Yes, sir. (to Matobu) And what do you think, as my partner!?

Everyone: (laughs).

Matobu: It's really novel. Since coming to Hanagumi, I haven't had a lover in any of the plays, though I have had a lot of unrequited loves. This time I have a lover for the first time, but what a debut! It has a slightly larger-than-life feel, and it's overwhelming.... (laughs)

Aine: (laughs). It's an honor to be your first lover.

Koike: It would be great if you turned into a bit of a comedy duo, don't you think?

Matobu: You want us to become a comedy duo!? (laughs)

Aine: Definitely a comedy duo (laughs).

Haruno: You two dance the tango, don't you?

Matobu: Yes. The tango becomes a "tango", and we're all twisted up.

Everyone: (laughs)

Aine: I put my arm around her shoulders by mistake.

Matobu: Simon suddenly looked like he was being led, the man and woman were reversed, and hilarity broke out. But I wonder if that's a good kind of feel for our duo?

Koike: It's good (laughs). Well then, Misuzu-san, go ahead.

Misuzu Aki: I play an Italian, Giolamo Giuliani, but I don't have a very large frame, so I wonder if I'll be able to exude a Sicilian mafia don... if I can display the bearing. Before we began rehearsals for this show, I went on a trip to Italy, and I went about watching the Italian men....

Koike: Ohhh? (laughs)

Misuzu: Not that I was only looking at the men (laughs)!

Koike: But Italian men aren't all that large, are they?

Misuzu: No. It's not that they were extremely tall, but they have a breadth that Japanese don't, and a feel which is also different from both Americans and French, so I'd like to bring that out. This time I'm thoroughly a member of the evil team (laughs), so I thought I should create a dark side.

Koike: When creating villainy, I want to have some place where humor can slip out. The character of Giolamo acts as that accent here. Although he is a villain, it's good to have that piece; that entertaining character. The things that entertain are the things that exist to capture the interest of the audience which is watching. When that happens, I think it brings out the contrast with Sou's Maurice, who is also deep in the same crimes. When you come to see a professional villain, and a person doing evil things while holding public office, and all types of villains, then you can come to see an opposing good side to even the people whom Marianne thinks are villains in the streets of the city at night. It would be good if we could all check our personalities against each other in this way.


While Feeling Strong Bonds.....

Haruno: This time I get to intermingle with all kinds of people on stage, and that's really fun. Everyone's personality shines clearly through their role.... There's also something deeper even about the people that I don't interact with so much on stage..., and I think how wonderful it feels to be on stage with them.

Koike: Listening to you talk, Osa, I think how glad I am that you seem to enjoy the show so much.

Haruno: (laughs)

Koike: Before, when you had your concert, you said, "There's no one luckier than me."

Haruno: Yes (laughs). That's right.

Koike: To be able to think like that is an amazing talent. For instance, I think a lot of energy comes from feelings of unhappiness, but that's not it. You deal with everything positively, and cope with things. I think that's something wonderful.

Haruno: Yes, sir (laughs).

Koike: I think how you deal with things positively, and gracefully cope, embodies the personality of this performance. I feel that the final impression of the Osa Era is, unsurprisingly, one of freshness and grace, and I think that that is very alluring, and that's why I want this to become a performance overflowing with allure.