This promo article for the Tokyo run of Shakespeare/HOT EYES!! was published in Sankei News on March 5, 2016. The original article was written by Hashimoto Nami and can be found here.

Takarazuka Revue Cosmos Troupe’s Top Star, Asaka Manato: the great playwright is “honest and charming”

Takarazuka Revue Cosmos Troupe’s Top Star, Asaka Manato, is performing until the 27th in the musical Shakespeare: The Sky Filled With Eternal Words, commemorating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, and the revue show HOT EYES!! at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre. Asaka said “I want to show his honesty and his charming side.”

Shakespeare “has the innocence of a child in adult form,” Asaka declared. “I can understand that, because in this job I want to hold on to my childlike heart and just let myself go sometimes.”

This musical about the Elizabethan playwright who wrote the four great tragedies (such as “Hamlet”) intertwines historical fact and dramatization. The story is about Shakespeare himself, his older wife who was his muse, and his patrons.

At the end of the year before last Asaka went to England for work and visited Leeds. “It somehow has a really natural feeling. Since he was raised in a rural area I wonder if he had that kind of atmosphere too. When I saw a picture of the house he grew up in I ended up getting lost in my imagination,” Asaka said with a laugh. She was also dedicated to her character’s appearance and used her hairstyle to present his wild side. “It’s not a hairstyle I’ve ever done before. It’s because he has tempestuous personality traits that can dominate him.”

On the other hand, the revue show uses the Grand Stairs in every scene for the first time in 33 years. All the performers say it’s like getting a leg workout. “Before we can come down the stairs there’s another staircase [hidden from the audience] with the same number of steps. So naturally we’re growing more muscular.” Cosmos Troupe’s power is increasing.