Image from Thomas Live Press Site: http://www.thomaslive.com/
Of course, the whole show is localised with a Japanese cast and the language all Japanese. W had no problem with this and he has a new found ability to sing the main song so I think he really liked it.
On the whole though, it was disappointing on several counts.
There seem to be several Thomas Live shows with different plots. The one we were treated to was about the magic lantern festival. There seemed to be one or two fewer cast than in the Youtube clips too.
The most disappointing thing was the script. I can’t say if this is only for the Japanese version, but the show contained a couple of long scenes of boring talking without music or dance. Naturally, half way through these the only thing you could hear were hundreds of bored little voices talking over even the actors’ mics. Very badly done.
Equally, there were no really funny scenes and certainly no slapstick for the kiddies. The actors seemed very nervous (admittedly it was the very first performance in Japan but I assume these people were supposed to be pros) and often seemed to want to play things seriously. Even the scene with the sleeping sheep, which presumably should be funny, came across rather dreery.
Then, while the narrating character was pretty good and dancers are dancers, the main characters, Thomas’s driver and Toppan Hatto Kyo (Sir Topham Hat) were very mediocre. STH was very short as well as fat and his singing voice so weak you couldn’t hear him most of the time (mic problem?).
Minor things, like the driver fluffing the very first line and the curtain sticking, all added to the ameteurish feel of he whole thing. Equally, the theatre sold two types of ticket. We bought the most expensive one (¥3800 for a seat wIth kids over 2 expected to pay) but we were still blocked from seeing about a quarter of the stage and at least from the agency we used there was no way to choose seats. Even then the theatre was only about 85% full. In addition, any kid sitting behind an adult hadn’t a hope of seeing the stage. Even W sat on my lap and we didn’t have anyone blocking us luckily, but the poor kid next to us couldn’t see even from his mum’s lap.
Finally, although unsurprising, theatre staff were mercilessly strict about stopping photos (even ones of your kid next to you) let alone video being taken. As I expected, the numerous ushers seemed employed mainly to carry out anti-photo patrols. OK, i guess this is understandable as they want to protect their copyright and, probably more important, want to hide how awful the production was, but short of someone clearly taping the whole thing, I’m not sure what they expected. This wasn’t exactly Broadway quality. Seeing as we would never have gone to see this show without first seeing all that marvellous free advertising on Youtube, it’s a policy that is downright kill joy like in it’s stupidity not to mention super irritating. If the show had had a professional feel, I would not have minded as much.
When all had finished, we were waiting for F to have a quick feed before moving out and still got scolded by the same staff for not leaving quick enough – I know they have to clean out for the second performance but making such demands when they can see paying customers struggling with a small baby when it can make a difference of all of 2 minutes at most is very close to rude.
All in all what should have been a nice, simple outing for a one off chance to see a special show turned out to be something of a poorly executed production put on in a very badly run playhouse. To anyone else thinking of going in Japan, I’d say only go if you’ve got free tickets! It just ain’t good enough to pay.
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