Talk DX is a long-running GRAPH talk feature where Top Stars and their main otokoyaku co-stars discuss their current Grand Theatre performance before the shift to Tokyo. Lilac Dreamroad/Jewel de Paris!! talk was published in the July 2023 issue and probably recorded mid-May in real time.
This feature involves detailed plot discussion/spoilers.
Talk DX: Lilac Dreamroad/Jewel de Paris!! (Ayakaze Sakina and Asami Jun)
Ayakaze: It’s been 3 weeks since we opened, but I have a lot of tough dialogue so I’m always nervous. But the brotherly scenes are so fun, every day.
Asami: Yeah! I’m really enjoying the atmosphere that comes from each of those scenes. In Pleiades in the Blue we played sworn brothers, but now we’ve become real siblings! I’m just so happy to have that blood relation (laughs). But it’s perhaps specifically because we’re siblings that there are some lines that can’t be crossed.
Ayakaze: We’re the eldest and next eldest brothers, so even though you’re the closest in age there’s still a bit of a distance, you could say. Among the brothers, Franz (Asami) is the only one who will oppose Heindrich (Ayakaze). But there are a lot of things I realize through that so I want to make sure I’m thinking about my performance. Your acting changes every time, so it hits me fresh every time (laughs).
Asami: (laughs)
Ayakaze: The reconciliation scene is a little awkward (laughs). Even though he’s embracing his other younger brothers and they’re all talking happily [he’s not there with Heindrich].
Asami: I think Franz is a bit envious that his older brother is so bright, generous, and unwavering. He still has an inferiority complex, and he still has the situation with Dietlinde (Nonoka) going on, so I think he’s decided he should still keep some distance. But it’s not as if they’re fighting, since he there as if it’s all normal in the next scene.
Ayakaze: Yeah, yeah.
Asami: During rehearsals I didn’t really get that part, but once the performance started, I ended up realizing that ‘being brothers is just like that’.
Ayakaze: We’re both only children, but recently I keep playing people who have siblings, so I feel like it’s coming to me naturally.
Asami: But having 5 siblings doesn’t happen every day, right!
Ayakaze: Right, it’s so fun. In the ‘Age of Steel’ number, when me, you, and Kazuki cross the Silver Bridge, I’m just having a ball (laughs).
Asami: Yeah (laughs).
Ayakaze: For the number all 5 of us sing, ‘Speed’, I never expected we’d have that kind of group dance!
Asami: It felt like a battle scene (laughs).
Ayakaze: But when I saw it in the junior performance it looked wonderful! I was like, oh, it’s so cool! (laughs)
Asami: The musical numbers aren’t really spaced out, so it seems like the audience is enjoying it as well.
Ayakaze: Georg (Kazuki), the middle brother, is the one who completely agrees with everything Heindrich says. It feels like he’s the one who supports him most closely. But it’s not like he’s being pushy about it, the way he’s just there for him is a big part of what Shiori (Kazuki) is bringing to the character.
Asami: When it comes to Franz, Georg is always like ‘Now, now’, or ‘okay, okay’ (laughs). He’s the neutralizing compound between the brothers.
Ayakaze: Randolf, played by Ichika (Ao) is really just Ichika (laughs). Josef (Kase Kyou) is also just as-is, right.
Asami: That angelic smile! She’s so cute.
Ayakaze: Adorable. It didn’t take any acting for us to fall in love with Josef (laughs). And in the climax, in the scene where their father’s past becomes clear through Asha (Miho) and Bajina’s (Touma) story, the lights are still on us a little on the main stage. Every time, Georg explains the whole thing to us so thoroughly. Even though we can’t hear any of it (laughs).
Asami: Right (laughs). He starts out with telling us about how he met Viela (Sara), who knows the whole story: ‘One day over Christmas…’
Ayakaze: And probably he’s saying ‘And according to old Mr. Weckler (Sakishiro)…’, too.
Asami: He times the length perfectly and always ends with ‘so then he was given to the convent’.
Ayakaze: The scene after that where we welcome Anton makes me just so emotional lately (laughs). On days where her emotions are bursting out she’ll just come flying in so innocently, like, boom!!! (laughs)
Asami: (laughs) It really hits us in the feels when we’re the ones accepting [those emotions]. When you start singing the song Josef wrote it really feels like ‘we’re all here together’.
Asami: So, what are you thinking when you first meet Elise (Yumeshiro)?
Ayakaze: When she changes into her dress and comes back I think ‘she’s so pretty’. Since she’s a woman pursuing her own dreams in an era like this, while I’m drawn to her from the first, the feeling that that’s a wonderful thing and I want to support her are also really strong.
Asami: I first meet her in the ironworks and she’s really excited about everything (laughs). (mimicking [Yumeshiro]) ‘It’s so nice to meet you!’ ‘Anton is so amazing!’ ‘Your older brother is such a nice person~!’, all that (laughs). But she notices that I’m not too happy, and deduces that Heindrich is worried about something. She’s really kind.
Ayakaze: Definitely. In the love confession scene, it’s not that I’ve spotted my perfect opportunity, but I’ve encountered her looking down for the first time, so I’m thinking that I want to be close to her. And then when I see her smile, it’s like I think ‘ah, I really do love her’, and the words just come out at the same time. And then what about you and Dietlinde? Since she’s actually your brother’s fiancee (laughs).
Asami: But really, it’s not that Heindrich actually likes her that much, does he? But then there’s her paying attentions to so many people, so Franz, who’s very conscientious, is getting flustered and struggling with himself (laughs). And her father (Souno Haruto) also wants her to marry his brother, so as the second son [he should refrain]…so he’s in a dilemma.
Ayakaze: I think Heindrich most likely realizes that Dietlinde likes Franz, so he doesn’t yield to her advances. But then this just makes her obsessed with him, since he’s the only person who isn’t falling for her. [But] in the very first scene, I’ve spotted you two together and figured out it means something (laughs).
Asami: Ah, we were discovered (laughs). In the end everyone is reconciled, but I’ve covered up Dietlinde trying to threaten Heindrich earlier, so nobody else knows about it (laughs). It weighs on him, but in the end, it was for love…
Ayakaze: Well, I hope that the Droysen family continues to live in peace (laughs).
Asami: Yes (laughs).
Ayakaze: The revue is so fun now that we have the sets and costumes, right. Starting with Aasa’s song with the other artists.
Asami: When we’re lined up on the bridge and the lights hit us, the audience reacts like ‘wah~!’ Everyone is in the role of different famous artists, so I want to draw them into the atmosphere of Paris. The brushes set out for us in the wings are laid out randomly every day.
Ayakaze: What, that’s so fun!
Asami: So if I get a thin one I’ll try to make delicate movements with it, and so on. We’re all writing our signatures, and it seems like the audience figured that out right away!
Ayakaze: That’s amazing. I can see just a little bit from where I am behind you (laughs).
Asami: What’s it like? Wearing that huge costume on the stairs and then having it pulled away.
Ayakaze: On opening day there was a big commotion with getting my headdress off, people were laughing (laughs).
Asami: Ahaha! And then you present the new class. It’s wonderful~
Ayakaze: I’m thinking ‘Congratulations’ with all my heart. I can’t actually see them all, but I can feel that ‘right now, they’re all coming down the stairs behind me’.
Asami: I feel like they’re all catching on to you cheering them on, Saki-san (Ayakaze).
Ayakaze: So cuteeee. And then at the very end of the prologue, I hand you the cane, but I’ll play with it as the whim takes me that day, you know (laughs).
Asami: You do!
Ayakaze: I don’t have any plans up until that second. Most of the time I do just hand it over normally, but some lucky people might get to see something different (laughs).
Asami: Sometimes you’ll fake like you’re about to throw it (laughs). It’s fun.
Ayakaze: Then in the next scene you’re an artist again.
Asami: That’s right. I myself am a ‘great artist’ (laughs). I’m supposed to be doing a painting while I’m on the Silver Bridge, so I just scribble a lot and then finally do a heart. Although recently, sometimes I’m trying to draw a cat.
Ayakaze: Ooooh. I hear you all getting amped up from the wings. Uh, what’s that you’re saying? Like, ‘Bian!’
Asami: ‘Viens!’ It means ‘Come here!’ What do you think of the ‘Collection’ scene later on? I love when you’re going ‘Aah~’ on the Silver Bridge during that. Conductor Shiota matches the mood to what you’re doing too (laughs).
Ayakaze: The music tempo is getting faster lately, it’s vibing (laughs). Everyone is leveling up every day, even (Shiraki) Hana-chan, the youngest in that scene, is winking at me now!
Asami: Ah~ that’s great~!
Ayakaze: Everyone’s trying different things, it makes me happy. I’m just there having fun. (laughs) And then in the middle number, you, me, and Shiori (Kazuki Sora)are dancing together.
Asami: I’m finally used to the rotating platform these days. And vocalising!
Ayakaze: We’re playing around on charter show days.
Asami: Today we were totally in sync, right!
Ayakaze: I can feel how much you trust me.
Asami: Trust! Well, you are my older brother so (laughs). The pair dance after that is lovely too.
Ayakaze: (Yumeshiro) Aya comes out right as the three of us are really getting into it, so the mood is at its peak. Also later there’s the Can-can!
Asami: How is it? Having the otokoyaku playing Can-can ladies yelling ‘Saki-cha~n 💖’ at you (laughs).
Ayakaze: Mana (Haruto) and (Kujou) Asu always make sure they synchronize so their ‘Saki-chan!’ is really clearly audible. So my ‘Who~a’ is really heartfelt (laughs). And then after that the couple choreography is really intense, so I’m getting a bit overshadowed there in my normal boy-girl couple! (laughs)
Asami: While I’m dancing Mana is always saying stuff like ‘Found you~ 💖’ or ‘You’re sooo cool!’ (laughs).
Ayakaze: Everyone makes their wigs so pretty every day, I’ve even seen Asu with her moustache on working on it between her scenes in the play (laughs).
Asami: Once when Mana changed something about hers it didn’t go the way she wanted so she told me ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t cute today…’ (laughs).
Ayakaze: Everyone’s so committed.
Asami: The junior musumeyaku could maybe learn from them (laughs).
Ayakaze: (laughs) I love the finale, too. Every day I’m thinking about how glad I am I entered Takarazuka.
Asami: Same, same. The music and the choreography really make you feel it. I really enjoy having you holding me, Saki.
Ayakaze: I’ve really wanted to dance together with another otokoyaku in a finale, so I’m happy. The group dance also has such a dignified feeling somehow.
Asami: It makes me feel nervous, but in a good way. The step choreography and such.
Ayakaze: Where we’re all kicking in sync with the bolero music, right. And then it goes right from that into the duet dance. When the otokoyaku all hit their pose and the center light comes on to me and Aya-chan, every day, each and every day! I’m just thinking, Takarazuka Forever! (laughs)
Asami: Yeah!!!
Ayakaze: The first [Takarazuka] show I saw was Cosmos Troupe’s Rose of Versailles 2001 [Fersen and Marie-Antoinette], you know. And the duet dance in that finale was the bolero with the red outfits. So in this show, I’m really happy we have the red costumes that are reminiscent of that. And the way the choreography uses the whole stage, from one end to the other, feels so nice, and then stopping on the Silver Bridge for a moment at the end and then running to the center, and the audience watching over us in that moment…it’s such a passionate atmosphere. I can feel the Grand Theatre with my whole body, and it’s like I’m embracing the whole Grand Theatre.
Asami: Everything matches up so perfectly, the famous song Jewels of Love1, (Miho) Keiko’s voice, the costumes and choreography, everything. It’s a duet dance that almost makes you forget time and swallows you up. Both the play and the show are really ‘Takarazuka-esque’, so every day feels really warm and I’m enjoying every moment. We have a lot of people retiring with this show, and the first-years will be assigned to their troupes before Tokyo, so I almost wish we could keep going and make a new double-feature show with the cast we have right now.
Ayakaze: Every day when we’re performing, I’m realizing that while the words and emotions being scattered around in the play are all not so large by themselves, they come together into something much more significant. I hope that message comes through to the audience. The revue is also so splendid and ‘Takarazuka-esque’, so I hope everyone will enjoy each and every scene in Tokyo as well. Also, I want to enjoy this time together with (Miho) Keiko, the new Snow Troupe members, the retiring performers, and everyone.
1 – An original Takarazuka song from the 1973 revue La La Fantastique that has become a staple number.