Takarazuka Grand Theater
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The is a theater located in
Takarazuka, Hyōgo 270px, Takarazuka City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Takarazuka city center The kanji (UTF-8 code FA1016), which is part of Takarazuka's official name (), is not available on all systems. (It can be entered in Wikipedia with HTML character & ...
, Japan. It is the home theater of the
Takarazuka Revue The is a Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western-style musicals and stories adapted from films, novels, manga, and Japane ...
, an all-female theater troupe established in 1913. The Grand Theater opened in 1924 and was rebuilt in 1993; the two iterations of the structure are occasionally distinguished as the and the . The theater is adjacent to , a smaller theater also operated by the Takarazuka Revue.


History

The
Takarazuka Revue The is a Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western-style musicals and stories adapted from films, novels, manga, and Japane ...
was founded by
Ichizō Kobayashi , occasionally referred to by his pseudonym , was a Japanese industrialist and politician. He is best known as the founder of Hankyu Railway, the Takarazuka Revue, and Toho. He served as Minister of Commerce and Industry between 1940-1941. Li ...
in 1913 as an all-female troupe staging ''
taishū engeki is a genre of popular theatre in Japan, frequently described as "light theatre", and compared to forms such as musical theatre and the revue. Though different interpretations and definitions abound, the chief distinguishing feature of ''taishū e ...
'', a term for "popular" theater aimed at "ordinary people". Kobayashi was the founder of the railway company
Hankyu , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group ...
, and chose the city of
Takarazuka, Hyōgo 270px, Takarazuka City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Takarazuka city center The kanji (UTF-8 code FA1016), which is part of Takarazuka's official name (), is not available on all systems. (It can be entered in Wikipedia with HTML character & ...
to house the Revue and Grand Theater as it was located at the terminus of a Hankyu line to
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
; the city was also already a popular tourist destination for its
hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...
. Early Revue productions were staged at the Paradise Theater, a renovated indoor pool in Takarazuka that the Revue quickly outgrew. To accommodate a larger audience, Kobayashi conceived of the Grand Theater as an immense structure located in the
suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
that would contrast other theaters of the era, which were typically small, aimed at a discerning audience, and located in major cities. The Takarazuka Grand Theater opened in July 1924. At the time of its establishment it was the largest theater in Asia; sources alternately report its audience capacity as between 3,000 and 4,200. The theater was designed by two architects from the
Takenaka Corporation is one of five major general contractors in Japan. Takenaka provides architectural, engineering, and construction services and has its headquarters located in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture. Takenaka has eight domestic offices in Japan with ...
: Washio Kuro, who oversaw the design of the building (and who later designed the
Tokyo Takarazuka Theater is another home for Takarazuka Creative Arts in Yurakucho, Chiyoda ward, Tokyo. It served as the second round performing theater for the Revue's performing cycle. The original theater was built in 1934. It was taken over by the American GHQ af ...
), and Fujii Yatarō, who oversaw the design of the stage and audience seating area. The theater featured modern amenities such as a
revolving stage A revolving stage is a mechanically controlled platform within a theatre that can be rotated in order to speed up the changing of a scene within a show. A fully revolving set was an innovation constructed by the hydraulics engineer Tommaso Francin ...
, hydraulic trap lifts, and lighting and sound systems, as well as restaurants, cafes, and souvenir stores. Its design, similar to that of a department store, has been cited as an example of
Hanshinkan Modernism identifies the modernist arts, culture, and lifestyle that developed from the region of Japan centered primarily on the Hanshinkan conurbation between Osaka and Kobe, the ideally terrained area between the Rokkō Range and the sea (Kobe's Nada ...
. The Grand Theater was immediately popular, with its success leading to the establishment of the nearby Takarazuka Hotel in 1926, and the film production company
Takarazuka Eiga , shorter name is , is a film production company. The headquarters is in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Takarazuka Eizo produces films from Takarazuka Revue musical theater, which is inside the building Tokyo Takarazuka Theater now. Takarazuka Eizo Co. ...
in 1938. The majority of the theater's interior was destroyed by a fire on January 25, 1935, causing the theater to briefly close for renovations and re-open in March of that year. The technical equipment and interior design were regularly improved in the decades subsequent to the fire. In 1944, the Grand Theater was forced to close amid the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
as a result of a government order that shuttered most leisure institutions. ''Tsubasa no Kessen'', the final play staged at the Grand Theater prior to its closure, was performed for a
standing-room only An event is described as standing-room only when it is so well-attended that all of the chairs in the venue are occupied, leaving only flat spaces of pavement or flooring for other attendees to stand, at least those spaces not restricted by occup ...
audience on March 4, 1944; in May of that year, the
Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
took over the Grand Theater for use as a barracks. The Grand Theater was not significantly damaged during wartime air raids, as Allied forces instead targeted the area surrounding the theater with
airborne leaflet propaganda Airborne leaflet propaganda is a form of psychological warfare in which leaflets ( flyers) are scattered in the air. Military forces have used aircraft to drop leaflets to attempt to alter the behavior of combatants and non-combatants in enemy- ...
reading "Do not worry, Takarazuka girls! We will not bomb you!" and "We will make Takarazuka flower again soon." The Grand Theater was occupied by American occupation forces upon the conclusion of the war in September 1945, and reopened to the public in April 1946. By the 1980s the theater generally resembled its current incarnation, in terms of both its facilities and its European-style interior design defined by marble floors, red carpets, and crystal chandeliers. By the end of the decade, the growth of the Revue obligated the creation of a more modern and technically-efficient Grand Theater. The newly-constructed theater, which opened on January 1, 1993. incorporates multiple stages, dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, offices, storage space, and the
Takarazuka Music School Takarazuka Music School (宝塚音楽学校, ''Takarazuka Ongaku Gakkō'') is a private girls' school in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. It is a Takarazuka Revue training school that is a miscellaneous vocational school approved by Hyōgo P ...
. Its exterior white stucco and red tiled roof is inspired by Spanish Colonial architecture. On April 5, 2014, the
centennial {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at a ...
of the Takarazuka Revue was marked with a revue held at the Takarazuka Grand Theater. The Grand Theater closed in April 2020 as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
and re-opened in July of that year, at half capacity and with recorded music instead of a live orchestra.


Venue information

The New Takarazuka Grand Theater opened in 1993 as a two‐level, 2,527 seat venue. Twenty-three additional seats were added in 2005 following renovations to provide better stage visibility for the second level, bringing the total capacity of the theater to 2,550. The stage is wide – including the back stage – and deep, and is equipped with eight trapdoors, 26 step stairs referred to as , three curtains, sixty decorative lights, seven floodlights, and a circular rotating stage that is in diameter. The theater uses advanced acoustic technology, including a sound field control system that ensures equal acoustic quality for all seats in the venue, and a positional sound image control system that allows sound to be timed to the movement of the actresses. Acoustic tests performed by the
Acoustical Society of America The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is an international scientific society founded in 1929 dedicated to generating, disseminating and promoting the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications. The Society is primarily a voluntary orga ...
found the Grand Theater has a
reverberation time Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...
of 1.1 seconds at 500 Hz, results deemed "very satisfactory". In addition to its performance space, the Grand Theater houses multiple amenities. The second floor of the theater houses the Salon de Takarazuka, an exhibition space on the history of the Revue showcasing costumes, stage drawings, videos, and music. The Salon also houses the Revue's publicly-accessible multimedia archives, which house information on previous works, performers, and visual artifacts such as posters and advertisements. Located within the theater are five restaurants, which orient their menus to specific repertoires and include the favorite foods of Takarazuka performers. Several stores are also located within the Grand Theater, including the Revue Shop (which sells souvenirs) and Quatre Rêves (which sells Takarazuka memorabilia, such as photographs and catalogs). Adjacent to the Grand Theater is Bow Hall, a smaller theater also operated by the Takarazuka Revue. Established in 1978, Bow Hall is a 500-seat theater that stages experimental works; the name references the bow of a ship, and was so named as to "lead the way" for the Revue's theatrical development. Bow Hall was conceived as a means to develop talent for directors, and stages several performances annually.


Transportation access

The Takarazuka Grand Theater is served by
Takarazuka Station refers to either of the following two adjoining train stations in Takarazuka, Japan, one operated by West Japan Railway Company, the other by Hankyu Railway. West Japan Railway Company Lines Takarazuka Station operated by West Japan Railway ...
, which connects to the Hankyu Takarazuka and Imazu lines, and the
JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...
Fukuchiyama Line The is a railway line operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) connecting Osaka and Fukuchiyama, Kyoto, Fukuchiyama, Japan. Within JR West's "Urban Network" covering the Osaka–Kobe–Kyoto metropolitan region, the line from Osaka to S ...
.


Gallery

File:Takarazuka Grand Theater Entrance.JPG, Entrance File:Takarazuka Grand Theater (38509899591).jpg, Lobby File:Takarazuka Grand Theater12s4s3104.jpg, Lounge File:Takarazuka Grand Theater14s5s3104.jpg, Stage


References


Citations


Bibliography

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External links

* * {{in lang, ja 1921 establishments in Japan Grand Theater Theatres in Japan Theatres completed in 1921 Takarazuka, Hyōgo