Blog - Pippi: The Musical, review

Pippi: The Musical, review

Yesterday, we went to the Setagaya Public Theatre (located in Sangenjaya) to see "Pippi: The Musical" starring Shinohara Tomoe, a musical adaptation of Pippi Longstocking (who I knew in French as "Fifi Brindacier").
We had bought our tickets early so we had the luck to watch from the third row! There were of course a lot of young kids attending, but none were really noisy throughout, only perhaps a bit towards the end (understandable after almost 2 hours, and especially when hitting the play's most emotional scenes).

The musical was absolutely fantastic!
Tomoe being quite short (shorter than I had imagined) looked perfect in the lead role of 9-year-old Pippi, with the bright orange characteristic hair. She was very lively, climbing around her villa, and never seemed to be getting tired despite all the jumping around. She truly showed the best of the hyper and energetic side of herself.
The play included artifacts such as characters flying around (to complement Pippi's incredible power), and also acrobats and clowns in the circus scene. Also very funny was Pippi's monkey, Mr. Nilson, which was probably remote-controlled since it could move at least its head while left alone, and also her large white horse.

I believe it was my first time seeing a musical live on stage, and it was very entertaining to see the large number of characters (Pippi's neighbors Tommy and Annika, the school's teacher and a few dozen kids, the annoying housewives, the circus staff, the two policemen, and also Pippi's dad and his crew of sailors, and Pippi herself) singing and dancing throughout the play!
I was almost brought to tears about twice during the sadder scenes.

Technically, while I don't know much about the world of stage acting, I was impressed that there was no apparent microphone, just a tiny one barely sticking out of their hair and catching voices very clearly. All acting seemed perfectly in sync with the soundtrack, which sadly wasn't being sold on CD.

Also, having been reading the first book lately, both to refresh my memory and to practice my Japanese, I can tell that the play was mostly along the book's storyline, though the book seems to have a different ending, and some of the chapters were presented in a different order.

I cannot recommend this musical enough to anyone in Tokyo, especially if you're nostalgic of Pippi, and even more if you're a bit of a Shinohara Tomoe fan like I am. :) The ticket's price may perhaps bite (¥8500), but I'm confident you'll end up think it was completely worth it!
(More info at my agenda and on the official site.)

Posted on August 2, 2004 at 14:54 | Tweet |

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