Today I saw a performance of The Scarlet Pimpernel. This, however, was a performance done by a very famous, all women's theater group in Japan. I'm lucky enough to live less than an hour away from Takarazuka, the town in which the theater is located.

The cast is composed only of women. I think there are men in the pit orchestra, and the conductor is a man, but other than that... Women play all the men's roles, so they sing like men, dress like men, and put on makeup to make them look manly. The women playing men's roles sang with very deep voices, and they carried themselves in a rather manly fashion to help create a convincing performance. But almost all of the men's roles included, in the costume, two-inch tall high heeled boots, so the women must be able to dance and move comfortably in high heels.

The entire performance was in Japanese, but if one read the story ahead of time, I'm sure the action would be fairly easy to follow. Also, it was a musical, so with a lot of singing and dancing, it was visually entertaining, even if I didn't catch every word that was sung or spoken. Maybe this was due to the setting of the specific story being performed today and the overall character of Takarazuka theater, but the costumes were elaborate and delightful to view.

The actresses in the Takarazuka theater group are extremely popular. Some of them have their own fan clubs, and the members of these clubs are always buying the front row seat tickets, which are thus impossible to obtain if you are not in a fan club, and the fans are always mobbing the actresses after the shows. But these women work hard, training from the time they are in high school, and instead of going to a regular high school, they go to a school especially for Takarazuka theater training. All of their training really pays off, as one can easily see when one watches a performance.