The Second Life summary

[matataku_hoshi]

WARNING: Here be lots of spoilers, so read at your own risk.  Also, my Japanese is only so-so and I’m doing this from memory, so I apologize if I make any mistakes or if things are out of order.  Not to mention the rambly-ness.  Gomen… -_-; You might want to first read the translation of the Japanese summary that Julie did on the TakaWiki. 

 

The show starts with a flash forward to the end with Mark-in-Jake’s body (Micchan) standing over Lucia’s coffin (I thought I had this wrong, but that’s actually right, even though you’d think it would be the other way around).  Mark sings the theme song with the ensemble.  It is highly catchy and Micchan is ungodly sexy and has a beautiful voice.

Backtracking in time, we go to Italy where Don Vincento (Nattori Rei)’s mafia runs a hotel.  I think.  Somehow they were involved with the hotel.  The evil Marconi family are trying to get the Vincento clan (whose motto is anti-violence) to join up with them.  Don Vincento says no.  Things look like they’re about to get violent when Jake (Micchan) comes in and breaks it up while being all intimidating.  The Marconi family is unhappy. 

I’m inserting this here because I forget where in the story it pops up, but there’s a subplot in which Don Vincento orders Carey to start up an exercise program for the Vincento

family.  They call it “Carey’s Boot Camp.” (This is making fun of Billy’s Boot Camp, a famous and rather ridiculous exercise program that’s popular in Japan right now).  The first time Carey can’t lead it very well and all of the mafia members are out of synch.  The second time they do better while wearing exercise track suits.  The third time…they all wear costumes with lots and lots of sequins.  Carey’s costume reminded me of one of the gold costumes Asako wears in Revue of Dreams.  It could actually be the same costume, not sure.  Oh, Bow Hall crack…

Going back to the main story, we’re introduced to Don Vincento’s daughter Ira (Fujisaki Eri), who has a crush on Jake.  She wears jeans throughout the whole show and is quite cute.  Her birthday is coming up in a few days and she asks if Jake remembers, which he does.  However, Jake is quite the womanizer.  There are four musumeyaku who expect him to go out with them tonight, which Ira isn’t happy about.  Jake and the other otokoyaku sing a song about womanizing.  

Backtracking in time even more, we see Lucia (Tacchin) and Mark (Kai-chan) in the past.  Mark proposes to Lucia while playing the piano and they’re extremely sweet together.  But then Mark is killed by the mafia, oh noes! 

Back in present, Lucia’s friend Kate suggests that they go on a trip to Italy to help Lucia get over Mark’s death.  However, when they get there they realize that the hotel is run by Don Vincento’s mafia.  Jake flirts with Lucia, which makes her angry because she hates the mafia.  Kate, on the other hand, really likes Jake. 

Mark is in heaven (with a very cute halo) and is upset because he misses Lucia.  He has a conversation with God (played by Nattori Rei and looking kind of like Moses), but I didn’t quite catch what it was about.  Mark decides to go back to Earth to try to see Lucia. 

When Mark gets back to Earth and sees Lucia, he rushes towards her as Tony Braxton’s “I Will Always Love You” plays in the background.  He realizes that she can’t see him and the music abruptly stops.  He’s bummed. 

While Jake is in his room with one of the musumeyaku, he gets a call from the Marconi family asking him for help.  Jake decides to check it out.  When he goes to meet them at a cafe, his contact is dressed in drag.  There’s also the sexy musumeyaku Nina who Jake (naturally) starts flirting with.  He orders wine for both of them.  Jake drinks it, but Nina doesn’t.  She is actually working with the Marconi family.  It turns out the wine is poisoned and Jake falls unconscious.  The Marconi family drags Jake to a beach and kill him.  They sing a song about being evil mafia. 

Mark (still bummed out) finds Jake’s body and decides to take it over in hopes of being able to talk to Lucia.  Jake at first isn’t happy about this, but somehow eventually agrees.  At this point Kai-chan disappears and Micchan becomes Mark-in-Jake’s body. 

Back at the hotel, the Vincento clan gets a note that Jake has been killed.  Everyone is upset.

Mark goes back to the hotel and is happy because Kate seems to recognize him.  But it’s not as Mark that she recognizes him, it’s as Jake.  Mark goes to embrace Lucia, but gets punched instead.  (Once again, a snippet of “I Will Always Love You” is played, suddenly stopping when Lucia doesn’t go for it).  Mark tries to tell her that it’s really him inside, but she doesn’t believe him and runs off angrily (at some point she sings a song about this).  All throughout Kate tries to flirt with Mark-in-Jake’s body. 

The Vincento clan comes back and sees that Jake (or at least his body as inhabited by Mark) is still alive.  Cue lots of scenes where the Vincento clan is thrilled that Mark-in-Jake’s body is alive, but Mark is freaked out and thinks they’re trying to kill him.  Mark realizes that he has just come back to Earth as a member of the mafia.  Catchy, angsty, really pretty singing, and intermission.

Hannah, during intermission I ran into one of the women from Micchan’s club who we were talking to after sora raku!  She recognized me and said hi.  I think she lives in Tokyo and came into town to see the show.  I’m getting the impression that a lot of people came in from out of town.  No wonder tickets were so hard to get -_-;;; 

At the beginning of Act II, Mark has a bad dream, ending in him getting shot.  When he wakes up, he’s relieved that it was just a dream, until he realizes that he actually still is reincarnated as a hit man.  Carey (Chigi) comes in to check on how Mark is doing, which makes Mark freak out (especially when Cary gives him Jake’s gun back – Mark originally thinks Chigi is going to shoot him).  After Cary leaves, Mark (adorably) freaks out and accidentally sets off the gun. 

At one point at the beginning of the second act Nattori Rei had an ad lib that made Micchan crack up to the point where she had to stop for a couple of seconds.  You could tell she was trying really, really hard not to break character. 

Somewhere along the way God comes by to check up on Mark.  Mark is discouraged because he’s stuck in a life that he doesn’t want and Lucia hates him.  I may have gotten my Japanese wrong here, but I think the gist was that because Jake had taken Mark’s place in heaven, Mark couldn’t go back.  God instead encourages Mark to try things again with Lucia.

Somewhere around here (and I know that I’m getting the placement wrong), it’s finally time for Ira’s birthday celebration.  Ira is upset that Mark-in-Jake’s-body doesn’t remember.  Mark runs out of the hotel in embarrassment. 

Carey has a very serious crush on Ira and wants to make her happy even though she’s upset that Mark-in-Jake’s body has forgotten her birthday.  Carey is determined to go ahead with the celebration.  It’s very sweet.  He opens a bottle of champagne for them.  While Ira is just standing there upset, Carey opens her present for her, which is a bag, and puts it in her hand.  (Chigi is adorably dorky while doing all of this).  Even though she ends up punching him at one point, Ira eventually accepts Carey’s love. 

Mark has become determined to prove himself to Lucia.  He somehow ends up as a waiter in a café where Lucia and Kate are having coffee.  Without her saying what kind of coffee they like, Mark brings Lucia her coffee the way she likes it.  Lucia is very, very slowly starting to wonder if maybe Mark-in-Jake’s body is telling the truth.  I think this scene ends though with Lucia getting angry again and running off. 

Mark sees the piano in the hotel lobby and becomes nostalgic.  When no one else is looking, he sits down and plays the piano.  I think this is the same song he played when he proposed to her.  Micchan actually plays the piano for this.

Poor, poor Micchan messed up the piano half way through the song and had to start again. I think she lost her place.  I really hope she’s not too upset!  We love you regardless, Micchan!  As a piano player, I know that it’s really easy to get lost in a song and then not realize where you are.  Micchan not only had to play the piano, but she also had to focus on singing and acting.  It seems to be pretty rare that Takarasiennes make major goofs.  I felt awful for Micchan in that the one day she made a mistake was the day the show was being recorded.  I hope she’s the kind of person who can just laugh at things like this. 

In any case, it’s a really, really, really pretty song, and other than that one mess-up, Micchan did a wonderful job with it.  Given that she’s not a professional pianist and probably hasn’t played piano much since her TMS days, I was really impressed. 

Back to the story.  Lucia hears Mark playing and comes downstairs.  I’m a bit confused as to when exactly Lucia accepts that it really is Mark in Jake’s body, but I think she starts to take him seriously.  They go outside together and have a romantic scene. 

Just as things are starting to look good, Mark gets a note from the Marconi clan saying they have kidnapped Kate and want Mark-in-Jake’s body in exchange.  Lucia is upset.  Mark agrees to do it, even if it means his death.

Mark comes alone to the meeting spot.  He tells Kate to run away, which she does after a lot of protest.  Just when the Marconi clan is about to shoot Jake, Don Vincento and the rest of the clan show up on the scene and Don Vincento shoots the otokoyaku who was going to shoot Mark.  He confesses afterwards that he had never actually shot a gun before. 

Everyone takes off, leaving Mark and Lucia alone to embrace.  I think by this point Lucia definitely believes Mark.  But just as it looks like we have a happy ending, one of the Marconi clan comes back and aims for Mark-in-Jake’s body.  Lucia takes the bullet for Mark.  Mark cries out for her to hang on, but she dies in his arms.  We then find ourselves back to the opening scene where we see Mark-in-Jake’s body watching Lucia’s funeral.  My heart kind of began to break at that point, but then…

…Lucia breaks out of the coffin.  Oh God, Bow Hall… Everyone else runs away except for Mark, who just stands around shocked.  I think what happened is that Lucia (like Mark) decided to leave heaven because she wanted to go back to Earth.  I think the implication was that they can’t return to heaven, but they’ll be together now and they’re both very happy because of that.  Er…I suppose it’s a rather unconventional and highly crack-filled happy ending, but it is still definitely a happy ending.  Cue a short revue.  There is an otokoyaku dance, a pair dance with Micchan and Tacchin, and then final bows.

The curtain must have come up and down at least five times.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it, or at least not live.  There was a lot of love for the cast in that room.  After the third time, everyone gave a standing ovation.  During one of the times Micchan went back to the piano and sang part of her song on the piano again.  It was funny because after a while she ran out of things to say, and yet we were all still clapping.

Now, I’m not 100% sure if I got my Japanese right on the following.  I’m a bit afraid to post this because I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up and then be wrong.  So please, please, take the following with a grain of salt.  I think Micchan said that they were bringing the show to Tokyo.  I think.  Given that this summer a lot of sora will be off doing Singin’ in the Rain in Umeda and some will be probably be doing a Bow workshop, this makes sense.  This obviously made me very, very happy.  But, agh, waiting for confirmation.  If anyone happens to see this on Mixi and can let me know if they’re heard anything, I’d be grateful.

Because this has gotten so long and rambly I'm going to do my actual review in the next post. 

Comments

[shetan83.livejournal.com]

When Mark gets back to Earth and sees Lucia, he rushes towards her as Tony Braxton’s “I Will Always Love You” plays in the background. He realizes that she can’t see him and the music abruptly stops. He’s bummed.

...

LMAO!

There is so much musumeyaku punching otokoyaku in this show. @_@

I approve. XD

Omg, this show sounds like so much fun and crack. XDDDD

[muffin-song.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there was a lot of otokoyaku getting beat up in various ways by musumeyaku now that I think about it...

And yup, "fun" and "crack" are probably the best ways to describe this show. That and "Oh-my-God-Micchan-is-hot."

[kalen9.livejournal.com]

Wow, it's a good thing I got up early today or else I wouldn't have been able to read all your posts! ^_^ Thanks so much for the effort you put into recording your weekend; all your stories were really fun to read. :)

[muffin-song.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed ^^

[wao-wao.livejournal.com]

I swear Becca, no matter how dead tired I am from being in airports and planes for close to nine hours, squeeful Zuka things can always revive me. <33333

(Obviously I skipped all your other posts for now because this is important enough to read before sleeping. ;-)

My first comment will be of love for the song reports, and how you described them. Otokoyaku singing "a song about womanizing". The Marconis singing "a song about being evil mafia". Tacchin singing an angry / angsty song? Lovelovelove.

After Carey leaves, Mark (adorably) freaks out and accidentally sets off the gun.

I NEED TO SEE THIS. It's not often we get to see otokoyaku be anything other than totally proficient and smooth with guns. Tehehe.

...I think the gist was that because Jake had taken Mark's place in heaven, Mark couldn't go back.

Ooohhhh, that actually kind of makes sense!! o.o

Even though she ends up punching him at one point...

Poor Chigi gets beat on by musumeyaku a lot, doesn't she. XD

Micchan actually plays the piano for this.

Eeeeeee!!!!! But she messed up, the poor thing!! Ohhhh, but I still really want to see it!!!

I was about to be angry at Hankyuu for yet another cute story ending in tragedy, but I'm glad to hear it stayed cracktastic to the end!! <3333

Will probably bother you with more commentary tomorrow. ;-D <3

[muffin-song.livejournal.com]

I NEED TO SEE THIS. It's not often we get to see otokoyaku be anything other than totally proficient and smooth with guns. Tehehe.

Ah, but this is Micchan we're talking about XD

Ooohhhh, that actually kind of makes sense!! o.o

See, that's what I thought. I tried asking Cate about this during intermission and she said that she wasn't sure how relevant those sorts of plot points are in these sorts of shows. And of course I'm the girl who keeps on trying to make sense of Bara no Fuuin...

Poor Chigi gets beat on by musumeyaku a lot, doesn't she. XD

Now that I think about it, you're completely right.

I was about to be angry at Hankyuu for yet another cute story ending in tragedy, but I'm glad to hear it stayed cracktastic to the end!! <3333

Me too, me too! :D

Will probably bother you with more commentary tomorrow. ;-D <3

Tanoshimi ni ^^ I need more people to obsess over this show with.