Talk Like Singing

すみません。I meant to post about this sooner! にしゅうかんまえぐらい　NYU で ともだちとアメリカ で いちばんにほんのミュージカルをみました。

Talk Like Singing is the first-ever original Japanese musical to premiere in the U.S. This energetic and heartwarming comedy is a never-before-seen style of musical theater.

A unique young man named Tarlow knows only how to communicate through song and dance. Tarlow appears to go through life happily singing his thoughts, regardless of his mood, because of the band members playing music in his mind. With the help of a speech therapist and psychologist, the singing voices inside his head are eliminated, and for the first time in his life Tarlow can speak without singing.

Talk Like Singing represents an incredible collaborative effort with direction, script and lyrics by the talented Koki Mitani, composition and music direction by Yasuharu Konishi, and lead performance role performed by Shingo Katori.

I wasn't even sure about whether it would be in English or Japanese, but my friend was also interested in going...so why not?

えいごですか。にほんごですか。：ときどきあまりわかりませんでした。ナレーションはえいごででしたが、うたはだいたいにほんごででした。 There were scenes with creative "subtitle" use: cue cards, electronic signs. At one point, they went on in Japanese too long and I had no idea what was going on. The narrator character then popped in announced that they were going back to do the scene in English!

ミュージカルでScenesがいちばんよかったですか。：My favorite scenes were when the speech therapist tried to teach Tarlow to speak without singing and dancing. In "A.I.U.E.O.", they basically went through the hiragana with song and dance. There was also a very random song "50 states", where...they sing about the 50 states, hehe.

ミュージカルはどうでしたか。：At a running time of about two hours, it may have gone on too long, but it was a very entertaining show with a very talented cast. Shingo Katori (best known from the Japanese idol group, SMAP) was endearing as Tarlow, but Jay Kabira was my favorite. His very energetic performance of the somewhat egotistical psychologist, Dr. Dyson, had him tap-dancing with geta (下駄) in one moment and donning a Rambo-muscle costume in the next.

ミュージカルはたのしかったです。十一月二十二日におわりました。

Here's a video with some of the musical (that part with "Louisiana..." is from that "50 states" song I mentioned) :D

Another video from Japan...


Edit 12/19: すみません。The video seems to be private now :-/