Highlights: Happenings of Romeo & Juliet on 2009.03.13 and 2009.03.15.


*Please credit me (snowaltz@livejournal) if you like to repost my fan report. If you want to translate it to another language, go ahead.

Questions from kioko_u, answers by me.

Romeo & Juliet 2009.03.13/15

Q: How do you feel the night before?

A: kitsunemd and I reached Japan the night before the 1st show and I only had 3 hours of sleep so I was pretty exhausted. We went to akasaka Sacas (Maru’s favourite dating place) and saw hot Maru/Daichi Rescue (TBS station is there) posters there, so my mind was pretty occupied, heh. But we went back to the hotel to get our beauty sleep early so that we could be energetic the next day.

The night before the 2nd show, we were tired so we rushed back to the hotel to watch Rescue on TV (it’s awesome I could finally watch high-res though it’s times like these I noticed Maru was having pimple outbreak =O) at 8pm. And we had an early night again to restore our energy.


Q: Did you guys get lost?

A: Yep! Haha. Actually the place is pretty easy to go. Alight at Shin’Okubo station, then walk about 10 minutes. We got lost at the point when we were about to reach the theatre, and then instead of walking to the entrance, we went to the back of Globe Tokyo, where the stage door is, haha! Our subconscious minds were calling out to Romeo-sama =P There was a poster of R&J at that area, so we took photos posing as Juliets, haha before making our way to the front.

Q: How does Globe Tokyo look like?

A: Outside the Globe, there was this huge billboard/poster of R&J. And then there is this bulletin board that has posters of recent shows in the Globe. We reached there around 12.15pm (the show was starting at 1pm) and there were some fangirls loitering outside taking photos of the theatre and posters.


Q: How does Globe Tokyo look like on the inside?

A: There wasn’t really any special thing about the interior of Globe Tokyo to mention.. When we entered, there were already queues of fans waiting to go into the hall. We went into the wash room to freshen up before joining in the queue. The tickets had seat numbers so it was okay not to be early. In the queue, we noticed that some fans were holding onto R&J flyer and we found that there was a stand (nearer to the theatre interior door) holding flyers. Each person was allowed to take 1 flyer. I saw fans who brought hard folders just so to protect the flyer. There were other fans who bought the pamphlet and slot the flyer in between.


Q: Were the people all excited?

A: Hmm, I guess they were okay. No overly excited conversation. Those who bought the goods were browsing through them.


Q: Are there any non-Asian fangirls there?

A: Nope, I didn’t spot any. I only saw and heard Japanese fangirls but kitsunemd heard an English conversation for the 2nd show we went.


Q: Are the Japanese fangirls pretty?

A: I had previously heard that Ueda’s fans are really pretty (so I was quite stressed over my clothes and makeup). However, the fan girls to this show looked normal to me. Not overly pretty, no over-the-top make up and most of them looked like students (about late teens to early 20s). I spotted this pair of mum and daughter in the queue (and in that instant, I wish my mum likes Ueda, haha).

For the 2nd show we went, it was a Sunday. And the fan(girls) were more well-dressed than Friday’s show. Prettier coats/caps and prettier girls with more makeup on in general.

Almost all the audience was girls but there was a guy (maybe in his 20s) in the queue for the 2nd show. Also, we saw another man (maybe in his 50s) when we were seated in the 2nd show. We thought that he might be one of the cast’s father.


Q: When you sat down, what did the stage look like?

A: For the 1st show, we sat on the 3rd floor, 2nd row, which is the furthest away from the stage. Once seated nicely, the audience started whipping out their binoculars (it’s a must-bring) and testing it to see if we can see the stage clearly.

The stage was circular and there were steps (2 steps down) all around, that touched the floor. There was gold-coloured design on the white coloured stage. There was this staircase in the middle, at the back of the stage. There were “candle lights” inside the theatre, around the 3rd floor, to give off the feeling of the old-English era.

For the 2nd show, we sat on the 1st floor (yay!). This seat was much to our very lovely and awesome surprise, 2 metres away from one of the stage doors. There were a total of 6 entrances for the cast. 2 were on each side of the stair case, 2 were on each side of the stage and the last 2 were actually entrances to the theatre (and we were seated near one).


Q: Do you need to wait for long till the show start?

A: Not really. If I remember correctly, the doors opened about 15 to 20 minutes prior to the show. And for the 1st show, I bought Only Star so was busy reading the Maru and Ueda page, hee.


Q: Describe the 1st show, as there would be times when you don’t know how the story develops. Describe the 2nd show, this time being closer to the stage and to Ueda.

I’m putting my answers together.

1st show we went: Friday, March 13th 2009, sitting on 3rd floor, 2nd row

2nd show we went: Sunday, March 15th 2009, sitting on 1st floor, 2 metres from one of the 6 stage doors, 12 metres from stage

The lights dimmed and the show started. Terada Minori as the Friar entered asking questions and the supporting cast replying “Koi (Love)” as answers. I think the Friar has really funky hair style, it was spiked towards the middle, looked cool~

Loud music started and the main cast entered. Ueda Tatsuya walked in first as Romeo and struck a cool pose. That was the first time I saw Ueda in person, kitsunemd and I were so excited that we kept nudging each other. Kobayashi Ryoko as Juliet entered next and then the rest of the cast.

And then, for the 2nd show, cos’ we had the luck to be sitting near a stage door entrance (we didn’t know it was one of the entrance cos’ it was an audience entrance too), when Ueda left the stage after the introduction, he exited the theatre using the door near us! OMG, 2 metres away from Ueda, it’s really like an impossible dream come true. He is so gorgeous even though the light was dim.

And I could see Ueda clearly on stage even without my binoculars for the 2nd show. We were about 12 metres away from the stage. He has a really nice side profile, nice perky nose, all the features beautiful on his face. Some people said that Ueda looks even more gorgeous off screen. But I think he looks as gorgeous as he is off and on screen, he’s already very good looking on screen. But one thing that I think couldn’t be well captured on screen is Ueda’s nice silky hair. It looks really soft and I wonder which brand of hair products he used =P Ueda is thin too, his legs are really slim. And of cos’, he is really muscular. The clothes he wore for the show are rather tight-fitting, so they showed off his form really well. His back muscles were especially obvious and manly =D

After the introduction was a scene at the market place. There was Yamashita Shoon as Mercutio. He is really very pretty and fair looking. I think his photos doesn’t do him justice, hah. And the Mercutio he portrayed totally gave off the feeling of a rich and snobbish guy. If I remember correctly, Hasegawa Jun as Tybalt entered and fighting ensues.

Ohshima Usaburoh as the Prince entered and the fighting ceased.

The next scene was Romeo and a group of girls. This scene was very cute cos’ Romeo was playing and flirting with the girls. He was all happy and suddenly, he shouted “Rosaline!” much to the shock of the girls. And then one of the girls fed Romeo with a biscuit. This biscuit is different in every show. For the 1st show I went, I think it was a stick. Romeo finished saying all his lines, all the while walking in a semi circle from the front to the back of the stage, and then ate the biscuit. For the 2nd show, the biscuit was a rectangular piece. This time, Romeo talked as he chewed the biscuit, it was really cute to hear his chewing voice, hee.

In this scene, there was also this part where Romeo was lying on the floor, faced-down cos’ Mercutio and Benvolio (Shirakura Yuji) were teasing him after hearing Romeo said, “Ore tte handsome (I’m handsome)” to the girls. The main point of this mention is that Ueda has a really nice, perky ass XD

By the way, Benvolio was dressed in peasant’s clothes. I didn’t study Romeo & Juliet as a Literature text but I had the impression Benvolio is not a peasant.

Soon came the Capulet’s party scene. Kobayashi was dressed in a kitty costume. And all biasness aside, she was really cute. After seeing her, I could finally understand why the producers got her to be Juliet. Granted, she may not be as pretty as Ueda but she’s the cute Juliet beside the cute Romeo. And she can act, all of the actors can.

Romeo was playful and went to lift up Juliet’s skirt. That made Juliet cried. Romeo panicked and started apologizing. Then he even tried acting funny to make Juliet smile. This part was really cute too and the ways Romeo acted funny were slightly different for the shows.

For the 1st show, he said, “Smile! (yes, in English)”. And for the 2nd show, he made a cute sound, “Ponk!”

Then for both shows, Romeo did a silly dance. After that, he lied face down on the floor. And then, he lifted his ass upwards and then downwards to move forward, a worm-like wriggly movement on the floor (another nice view of his ass, haha).

Then the kissing scene at the party.. Romeo-sama lingered on Juliet’s lips for at least 3 seconds for the first kiss! *angst* There was a second kissing scene after Romeo proposed to Julietm, which was also a lingering kiss for 2 seconds. For the 1st show, I’m very sure their lips touched for the two kisses cos’ I was seated on the 3rd floor, so it was very clear through my binoculars. For the 2nd show, during the 2nd kiss, Ueda was back-facing me, so I can’t be sure if their lips really touched. But I feel that Ueda is really taking all opportunities he can get as a guy. For all those hugging scenes, he was always speaking into Kobayashi’s hair, hugging her close to him. (I think I’ll stop here before more hearts are broken..)

After the party, it was the night scene where Romeo went to find Juliet to propose marriage. Mercutio and Benvolio were trying to find Romeo who sneaked off into the night. They shouted, “Romeo! Hansamu (handsome) Romeo!”, to which Romeo cheekily raised his hand while hiding at a corner of the stage. It was really cute to see Romeo raising his hand to respond to “handsome” =P And at this point, Romeo was squatting down on the edge of the (audience’s) right side of the stage. Some lucky front row audience got to be merely 50 centimetres away from Ueda, very lucky indeed.

There was this part where Romeo looked out the window to find Juliet. And I totally thought of Juliet!Ueda at this part *laughs*

Juliet addressed Romeo as “Romeo-sama” throughout the show.

Let me move on to the wedding scene. I think Irie Kanako deserves a special mention cos’ she made an interesting Balia (Juliet’s maid). When Romeo and Juliet got married, she asked Romeo if he has any single siblings or cousins for a match of her own. She was a cute and amusing Balia.

Romeo hugged Juliet after they were pronounced man and wife by the Friar.

For those of you who are familiar with the story, the tragedy started soon after.

Mercutio and Benvolio were in the marketplace. Benvolio was a cloth maker. Tybalt entered and stepped on Benvolio’s newly produced cloth. Fighting ensued between Mercutio and Tybalt. I like the differences between how Mercutio and Tybalt were portrayed by Yamashita and Hasegawa respectively. Mercutio was kind of laid-back and taunting. Tybalt was intense and forceful. The fighting chorography was great and I think the boys really put in effort during their fencing practices. The attack and defence strokes were well matched and it was really cool to watch the scene.

Romeo entered and tried to break the two apart. There was this part where Romeo was “kicked” (a leg out which didn’t touch Ueda), presumably by Tybalt (I can’t remember who exactly) and Romeo started rolling towards the front edge of the stage. During the 1st show, I thought Ueda was just going to roll off the stage with his not-very-slow, real-looking rolling, so I actually panicked a bit that he was going to fall on his pretty face. I couldn’t see the part of the audience floor where he landed from my seat on the 1st show.

However, for the 2nd show, I saw that just when Ueda rolled to the edge of stage floor, he kicked one of his leg out, did a last flip and landed in a half knelt position on the audience floor. I was quite impressed by this action.

And then Mercutio got stabbed by Tybalt and died. Following that was the fight between Romeo and Tybalt. This fight scene was really intense. The lightings flashed red at appropriate moments to illustrate Romeo’s rage on Mercutio’s death. Once again, the fighting sequence was well staged.

After that would be Romeo getting exiled. Before Romeo left for his exile, he visited Juliet. During this scene, the stage floor was covered with a red cloth to illustrate a bed perhaps. There was a “pillow fight” where Romeo threw the pillow (a little forcefully in my opinion =P) towards Juliet. It was cute nevertheless. And then the sad part came as Romeo apologised to Juliet (which would be elaborated in the next answer).


Q: Can you understand all the Japanese speaking?

A: Nope, I could only understand about 5% of what was said. And thankfully, brown_geisha translated some of the lines so I could understand those lines.

One part that I understood and had me emotional was when Romeo kept on apologising to Juliet. He was seated down on the stage floor, back facing Juliet, was crying, and kept repeating, “Gomen gomen (Sorry sorry)”. If I remember correctly, he was apologising for killing Tybalt, for all the mishaps there had happened, for him having to leave etc. That was totally heartbreaking, to see Ueda crying like that. And he really did cry, his face was wet with tears after each show and during those crying scenes, he spoke with those crying tone. Really heartbreaking.

Juliet went to hug him from behind as he apologised and it was sad and sweet at the same time. Romeo was wearing a white long sleeve shirt for this scene, different from his main costumes (will be elaborated later).

Another part I understood was when Juliet "died", the cast were reading letters from Juliet while Romeo knelt crying away in the middle of the stage. There was this part of the letter which went something like, "I want to drink tea together with you, everyday." It was such a simple thing and they would not be able to do it anymore, so it was very sad.

And I promised myself that I must work hard in my Japanese, and I’ll make it to see a Ueda live again in 2 years. This time, I would be able to understand him.

However, there are perks to not understanding the lines. When other Japanese fans were sobbing over the tragic lines (a lot of sniffing sounds all around), I was making full use of my time to admire Ueda’s beauty =P


Q: Were there pretty costumes?

I’ll just write about Romeo’s costumes. (This report is getting long and I’m tired..)



The above is the first main costume Romeo wore. He swapped between white and black boots for different scenes. He wore this costume from the beginning of the show.



The above is the costume Romeo wore to Capulet’s party.



The above is the second main costume of Romeo’s. He started wearing it after he got exiled. I love this costume, cos’ it’s low cut and thin. This meant that when Romeo was kneeling and leaning forward, sobbing over his tragic life, the audience had a clear view of Ueda’s chest, hahaha. And like most Ueda’s top, this shirt had the tendency to hang almost off his shoulder. Ueda seriously knows how to do his fan service. During the 2nd show I watched, when he first entered with this second main costume, the shirt was already looking like it’s going to fall off his shoulder. Oh Ueda, I don’t believe that you didn’t arrange your clothes “properly” before entering XD

On top of that, the material of this second costume is thin. So we get to see the muscular back of Ueda’s easily through the clothing, fufufu.

By the way, he was wearing his 3-rings earring. When he wore the 2nd main costume, he wore a cross-necklace with it.


Q: Is the play good?

Yes. Yes, I’m not being bias. All the cast acted really well. I could tell that they put in effort during rehearsals and it paid off.

And Ueda did well. For a person who hadn’t really acted before, he was really good. The frivolous and playful Romeo during the 1st half and the tragic Romeo during the 2nd half. Till now, I can remember clearly that his face was wet with tears and his voice was choking with emotions during the sad scenes.


Q: How did the audience respond? Did people stand up and clap or anything?

Before I answer this question, I noticed that for both shows I went to, Ueda likes to look to his left (the audience’s right). For example, during the show, when he spoke those lines, I think the times of him facing his left were higher. Also, when he came out to bow and thank the audience, he looked to his left for a longer time. It was a pity for us, cos’ we were sitting on his right.. Then again, maybe because I’m on his right that I felt that he’s spending too much time looking at the other side, haha.

kitsunemd and I stood up to gave Ueda a standing ovation for both shows. However for the 1st show, all the audience didn’t stand up. I was kind of disappointed. I did manage to shout “Tat-chan” when Ueda came out, which is what I’ve always wanted to do since he became my idol =D We clapped for awhile more and Ueda reappeared with Shirakura (Benvolio). Shirakura “acted” as Juliet, lifted his hand up and let Romeo led him back stage. It was really cute and amusing. There was no talking by Ueda though.

For the 2nd show, when we stood up, there were 3 fans two rows ahead of us who saw us doing that. Then they stood up too and soon enough, everyone stood up. I was really happy to see a standing ovation.^^ We clapped for a really long while, my hands were all numb. I also managed to shout “Romeo-sama”, my last chance to shout that. I think most of the Japanese fangirls are shy (or maybe it’s their culture), very few of them shouted. Finally, after what felt like 10 minutes, Ueda reappeared and bowed to thank the audience. He looked really tired (from all the crying, I believe) and went back stage after that. It was a little disappointing not to hear him talk but it was also okay because he needed the rest.


Q: Describe your feelings

Actually I didn’t really cry during the play. I did get pretty emotional over those sad scenes where Romeo was bawling his heart out cos’ it hurt to see him crying like that. In addition, I couldn’t understand most of their lines, so I couldn’t really cry over the tragic lines.

I was more overwhelmed by the feeling of finally seeing Ueda live. And I started hic-cing after the 1st show cos’ the feeling was just surreal, the thought of finally there in Japan, supporting Ueda in his solo activity, something which I wanted to do since last September. It wasn’t easy to plan for this trip as we met quite some obstacles along the way. But at that moment, I was so glad that we managed to pull through, to really be there was amazing.

I remember when I walked out of the theatre after the first show, my first words to brown_geisha (who was waiting outside for us) was, “I want to watch it again”.

And I was sad after the 2nd show, cos’ I don’t know when will be my next time to see Ueda.

There was this feedback form that the audience can fill in after watching the play. I asked for a Romeo & Juliet and MOUSE PEACE (I can’t helped it) DVD. And there was this question about the future shows you would want to see in Globe Tokyo. I wrote I want to watch shows of Ueda and Maru, fufufu.


Q: Do you think Jin (and the MOUSE PEACE band) went on March 13th?

I don’t know. I thought I didn’t see any guys sitting on the first floor, middle seats, cos’ I was keeping an eye out for Maru.

But the thought of missing Jin if he was really there is sad (>.<)


Q: Did you get the merchandise after the show?

Yep, we got the merchandise after the 1st show we watched. We didn’t want to rush and we already know the contents, so there was no hurry.


Q: What did you think of the merchandise?

It was of better quality than MOUSE PEACE merchandises =P The pamphlet is smooth and glossy, very pretty. The postcards look much better in hand than scans cos’ of the non-photo material. However, I think that there should be shop photos of the play.. There was no bag to carry the merchandises by the way. And I was looking forward to Ueda coming up with food menu for the Globe’s restaurant (like what Maru did) but he didn’t.


Q: How did the day end? Describe your feelings.

After the 1st show, we were the last few to leave Globe Tokyo. And when we were about to cross the driveway of the theatre, there was this car with black screen windows driving out. I think each of us debated if we should wave stupidly at the car, cos’ we don’t know who was in the car exactly. Maybe it’s Ueda, Kobayashi or maybe just someone we aren’t interested in. Till now, I wonder who was in the car.

On March 13th, we proceeded to Harajuku after the show to buy the tickets for the 2nd show we would be watching. And we did some major fangirl sweeping of goods at the famous Johnny’s shop and other shops selling JE goods. I felt so broke (and happy) after that.

On March 15th, we went to Mandarake, Nagano, which is the shop Jin and Koki went and put on cos-play costumes in Cartoon KAT-TUN. And then we went to Bunka Hoso at Hamamatsucho, which is the radio broadcast station of R-One KAT-TUN. I love Bunka Hoso, it has a romantic bridge overlooking Tokyo Tower right in front of the building.

Let me say the last “titbit” of Romeo & Juliet. We went to Johnnys Family Club on March 17th. In the video airing at the club, when the rest of KAT-TUN asked Ueda who are the cast for R&J, Ueda introduced Kobayashi as “Kobayashi Ryoko-chan”.

And that’s all, thanks for reading this rather long fan report =)


さようなら、大好きなロミオ様