When I fall in love with a story, I make it my life's mission to watch every adaptation of that story that it's humanly possible to find. I love The Prisoner of Zenda. I also love Takarazuka. So this should be a match made in heaven.
Transliterated, the title reads "Zendajou no Toriko". It means roughly "The Captive of Zenda Castle". I guess an exact translation wouldn't have worked in Japanese. (Goodness knows some exact translations of Japanese titles don't work in English!)
I've already given a summary of Zenda's plot, so instead I'll use the introduction to explain what Takarazuka is. The Takarazuka Revue (pronounced "ta-ka-raz-ka", not "ta-ka-ra-zoo-ka", something I wish I'd known when I first learnt about it) is an all-female Japanese theatre. In addition to original works and versions of Japanese stories, they've adapted several Western films/books/shows, including West Side Story, Elisabeth, Roméo et Juliette, Oklahoma!, and Singin' in the Rain. For more information, see TakaWiki.
Now, a note on the actresses' names. Japan, like many other Asian countries, writes people's names as "Surname First-name". When translated to English, the name order is usually reversed. For example the protagonist of Sailor Moon goes from Tsukino Usagi in Japan to Usagi Tsukino in the Western world. For some reason this doesn't happen much with Takarasiennes (nickname for 'Zuka actresses). Almost every English-speaking fan uses the Japanese name order. However, official English-language material published by Takarazuka uses the Western name order for the same actresses. Confused yet? So am I.
After considerable thought, I decided that the majority of my readers would not know to mentally flip names back-to-front. So I'm using the Western name order to refer to the actresses.
Thank goodness that's out of the way!
My knowledge of 'Zuka is predominantly confined to Elisabeth. So although I recognised a few actresses, all but one of them are from different versions of Zukabeth (and Tohobeth in one case).
Tatsuki Kouju (Rudolf in Elisabeth 1996, and Sophie in the 2016 Toho production) as Rupert of Hentzau
Midori Hatsukaze (Franz Joseph in Elisabeth 2005) as Fritz
Tomomi Ritsu (Max in Elisabeth 2002 and 2007) as Johann
Anri Mimi (Sophie in Elisabeth 2005) as Amanda
Hiromu Kiriya (Lucheni in Elisabeth 2005 and Franz Joseph in 2009) as Welhelm
Yuuga Yamato (Don in Singin' in the Rain 2008) as Anthony
It shouldn't be surprising to hear the musical takes considerable liberties with the plot, but not as many as might be expected. The greatest difference is that it cuts the entire first quarter of the book, and begins with not-king!Rudolf's coronation. Presumably the backstory is explained in dialogue; I don't understand enough Japanese to tell.
Not-king!Rudolf.
(Sky Stage is the official Takarazuka TV channel, if you're wondering what that logo means.)
Anyway, the story starts with Michael and his lackeys in a state of shock over the king's apparent miraculous recovery. Rupert is introduced here, like in the 1937 film, instead of later, like in the book. Then they discover and kidnap the real king.
Not-king!Rudolf, meanwhile, is falling in love with Princess Flavia. Everything after that proceeds more or less the same as in the book, despite the addition of a few characters who were either nameless or non-existent in it.
Flavia
Michael
Rupert
The climax is the most different. I have two major problems with the climax. First, Michael's death. What the dickens was that? One minute he's bawling like a baby, the next Rupert has stabbed him. In the book the two of them fought for a while, and Michael put up at least some resistance.
The other problem is Rupert's death. I understand why they killed Rupert off; they didn't intend to adapt the sequel, and if he survived then that would have left unanswered questions. But still...! 😑😞
Like all Takarazuka productions, this is a musical. Unfortunately, only one song in it is memorable. I've nicknamed that song "Rudolf's Rose Song". Not because it has anything to do with roses (I can't tell what it's about), but because Rudolf is holding a rose for part of it. The other songs are best described as "not outstanding, but not dreadful"... with the exception of Rudolf and Flavia's duet. Sometimes harmonising sounds really good. And sometimes it sounds like someone's badly off-key. Guess which one Flavia falls victim to.
On the bright side, the costumes in this scene are beautiful. I actually like them better than the ones in the 1937 film.
Overall the show is summed up as "pretty good, and fairly close to the book". It's not perfect. And it's much too short for my liking. But I think I can safely say it's better than Zenda, the 1960s attempt at a Prisoner of Zenda musical, which apparently didn't include the characters of Rupert or Michael! 😒
I really wish someone would make a full-scale musical based on The Prisoner of Zenda. But in the meantime, this version is probably the best we've got.
Is it available online?: I thought long and hard about answering this question. Takarazuka's parent company frowns upon videos of the shows being openly put online. But according to TakaWiki, the rule of thumb is "will the company lose money because of it?" The Prisoner of Zenda is not available on DVD, so I don't think giving a link to the video will cost the company anything. But better safe than sorry. I'll just say that it's available online, but I won't say where.
Rating: 7/10.
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