Elisabeth the musical

Bouncing off from the post on Takarazuka on Monday I'm here to talk about my absolute favorite musical ever, "Elisabeth" by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay.

Elisabeth is based off of the life of Elisabeth of Bavaria, "Sisi" to close friends. She was a complete tomboy growing up, but was married to her cousin, the Emperor of Austria, Francis Joseph, at only sixteen. She had four children, three girls and one boy, but all children were taken away from her at a young age to be raised by her Aunt/Mother-in-Law. Sisi travelled a lot and came to be known as "The Wandering Empress". She was also obsessed with her beauty and youth, following very strict diet, haircare, and skincare regimes. In 1898 she was assassinated by pure chance by Italian anarchist, Luigi Lucheni. He had missed his original target, spotted Elisabeth, and decided to kill her instead, stabbing her with a sharpened file. You can read more about Sisi's real life on her wiki page.

The musical is a little different, a little more fanciful. It starts in Hell, where Lucheni is under judgment for the murder of Elisabeth. He tries to get out of it by claiming that Elisabeth had wanted to die. When asked to explain he begins the story, calling up the souls of the dead who knew Elisabeth in life to help him.

According to Lucheni, who narrates throughout the whole play (and is always quite sexy in my opinion), after attempting an acrobatic trick when she was a child Elisabeth actually dies. She meets the Angel of Death, Der Tod, who almost immediately falls in love with her. Because of his love, he returns her to life for the price of her forgetting him but swears that he will have her heart in the end. We then follow Sisi throughout her life, the marriage to her cousin Francis, the birth and taking away of her son, her political influences, and a lot of other high and low points of her life that I won't give away.

The music is modern, having been made in the 90's, and has a lot of rock influences. I have seen two versions, the "original" Austrian and the Japanese Takarazuka Moon Troupe's version. I can't say which one I prefer, but there are definitely a lot of differences between the two to make each special. The Austrian version has a lot better singing, but the Takarazuka version has amazing choreography.

Uwe Kroger vs Ayaki Nao as Der Tod

And because I can't talk about this play without sharing youtube clips I'll share the two different versions of my favorite song "Die Schatten Werden Langer"/"Yami ga Hirogaru"/"The Shadows Grow Longer".

Austrian version (With Mate Kamaras as Der Tod and Fritz Schmid as Prince Rudolph)



Japanese Version (With Ayaki Nao as Der Tod and Oozra Yuhhi as Prince Rudolph)



My hope is that one day this musical will make its way to Broadway in the US. I'm absolutely in love with it. I have the Moon Troupe's version on DVD and want badly to get my hand on an Austrian version. All in all I believe it's a compelling story with beautiful music.

If you want learn more about Elisabeth the musical, here is the wiki page. If you don't mind watching things on youtube the whole production with Mate Kamaras as Der Tod is available here. If you're interested in the Takarazuka production, the Takarazuka Insanity Project has the Moon Troupe's 2005 performance (the exact one I own and have shown you here) available with subtitles.

I apologize if I've gotten anything wrong in this post in regard to names or languages, I do not speak or write German or Japanese but I've tried my best to keep things accurate.

The Takarazuka Revue

I'd say this is rather lolita related. There's a lot of historical and fanciful clothing involved and they've been features in Gothic & Lolita Bibles, but we're gonna take a quick detour right now.

I'm not an incredibly devoted fan, I can't name all five troupes of the Revue off the top of my head, the only actress' name I know is Ayaki Nao, but I do love the Takarazuka Revue.

For those who don't know, it is an all female theater troupe in Japan that performs musicals. In fact, it's the only all female performance troupe in the world. The actresses are split into two roles in the school. Otokoyaku for the male players and Musumeyaku for the female players, and for the most part are tied to these roles throughout their career.

Takarazuka does many musicals from all over the world. From the American West Side Story, to the Austrian Elisabeth (You'll see more about this one Friday.), to an adaptation of the popular Japanese manga Rose of Versailles. They do everything from comedy to drama. They even have a Phoenix Wright musical. I shit you not. You can learn more about Takarazuka at their english webpage and on their wikipedia article. I could tell you more but now I'm going to get to the eye and ear candy.

Phantom (of the Opera)



Rose of Versailles



Gone with the Wind



I can't really suggest a place for you to buy videos of any of these plays, unfortunately. Japan is rather possessive when it comes to Takarazuka and your best bet would be through a shopping service. But be warned that they can get expensive.

However, if you don't mind unofficial videos and would like subtitles, the fans over at the Takarazuka Insanity Project have quite a few translated titles under their belt. They make no money whatsoever, you only pay for the cost of the DVD and the shipping. I have a few plays from them and can say they do a wonderful job over there. The quality isn't the best, but that is in order to encourage you to buy the real DVDs.

And with that I'll leave you with one last present. I assure you, you're not ready for this.