#given stage play

I made a few posts already detailing my immediate thoughts after seeing the stage play (twice!!).

Now I have decided to compile my thoughts into a more coherent post.

Spoilers for the stage play, which covers the events of manga volumes 1-5, plus some of the extras from volume 7.

To preface this: I went the first time on the second showing in Tokyo, Saturday’s 6pm showing, with a friend. Seating was up to luck, and by pure sheer fortune, we got seats in the second row–which was effectively the first row. The second time, I went on Monday night, the late 7pm showing, alone. This time I was in the third row on the balcony. (Both views of the stage pre-show below the cut.)

(Side note about the second angle–that railing on the left was intensely frustrating. That part of the stage is Ugetsu’s bedroom and Haruki’s dining room (and also Uenoyama’s classroom, but ah….my priority is very much the Akiharu storyline). Haruki’s dining room turned out to be fine, as they are all sitting in chairs, nobody gets cut off. But Ugetsu’s bedroom, they’re so often just lying on the bed or sitting on the floor, and frequently the railings felt like serious obstacles during those scenes.)

The show was first announced as 2hrs 30mins with intermission, but it ended up at 2hrs 50mins, according to the official Twitter. (I think it might have in fact been closer to 3hrs, as the second time I went, they skipped intermission–more about this later, it was GREAT–and when I checked my watch as I was putting on my coat, it was already more than 2hrs 50mins past the start time.)

As per the manga, act 1 follows mainly Ritsumafu, concluding with the confession after their first live. Act 2 picks up from the two of them asking Akiharu for permission (Akihiko is crashed on Haruki’s couch eavesdropping while they ask Haruki for permission to date, in this version, which worked very well imo), all the way through the confession and up to Akiharu asking Ritsumafu for permission to date. (Full circle!)

It starts like the anime. 寂しくないよ/I’m not lonely, says Mafuyu, and we see him standing alone at center stage in an orange spotlight, hugging the guitar as petals flutter down.

This orange spotlight was the depiction of Yuki throughout the play. I loved it. They did not cover the specific events of the fight, which was narrated by Hiiragi while Mafuyu acted silently opposite the spotlight. Honestly, I didn’t fully appreciate how emotive they manage to make the spotlight during my first viewing. (Going into my second show, I texted @edragoon​ that I was a bit worried I wouldn’t appreciate it as much a second time if I got a less good seat, because I had such a great seat the first time; and she pointed out to me that the effects and such are so much better from a seat further back. It was the Yuki spotlight that gave me the sense, of YES, I’m so glad I did get to see it again from this angle.)

The music they used was from the anime. By which I mean the music they performed, yes, but also they used the soundtrack music as the stage soundtrack as well. Whenever Uenoyama and Mafuyu were playing with their guitars, they were genuinely playing the guitars, even if they weren’t necessarily hooked up to the amps. (Miming was only used for select scenes where the person playing was more or less irrelevant.)

What was fascinating was when they would hybridize a scene, and start out with the cast actually playing a piece, and then dive into a recording. They did this with the jam session–you know how Uenoyama starts with a riff, Haruki joins in, then Aki cuts in with drums and they sync up? From the drum section it switched to a recording.

The jam session was used as a kind of opening credits, where the whole cast comes out, with their names displayed on the screen at the back of the stage. Full cast was the 4 members of Given, of course, then Itaya and Ueki, Hiiragi and Shizu-chan, Take-chan, and Ugetsu. (Thank goodness Ugetsu was last, because I always got so enraptured when Ugetsu came out on stage and forgot to look anywhere else–more on this later too.)

Mafuyu’s actor was astonishing. The first time I went, my friend spent intermission googling to make sure that he definitely was not the anime voice actor in any shape way or form, because his voice sounded so similar. I loved every member of the cast, but sometimes I would fall into thinking about technical details. The only characters for whom I NEVER thought about the acting aspects were Mafuyu and Ugetsu, because both of them so perfectly embodied the characters they were portraying.

As the above is a complete list of the cast, this means that they *did* cut all the girls–the classmate who shares gossip about Mafuyu with Uenoyama was replaced by a letter, and Yayoi was entirely absent. I do think that perhaps Uenoyama’s character’s likability suffers a little, because Yayoi’s presence is what provides the counter to his usual Ue-sama mode. But as a storytelling tactic, it made a LOT of sense, and I was so grateful that they didn’t cut Shizu (unlike the drama), who is absolutely necessary to the portrayal of Hiiragi.

Scenes like banter were often performed quite quickly through the start of act 1, at times as if the actors were desperately trying to rush through the show to keep the run time under 3 hours. Having said this, when time was necessary for the scene, they DID take their time. The emotional slow scenes were not rushed at all.

Itaya and Ueki act throughout act 1 as a sort of banter happening off to the side while the other actors run around getting into their new positions. Itaya’s actor was, true to his character, VERY emotive and expressive. He was great, I wished for more Itaya scenes.

Take-chan is great too.

Now see, the second time I went, they didn’t do an intermission. When the curtain went down, Take-chan came out on stage and introduced himself with his full name (Yatake Kouji), and explained that because his name doesn’t appear anywhere in the story, he just hoped that we would remember it. He apologized for the lack of intermission, and as to the why, said, “良い子は22時には帰らなきゃいけない、とか、そんなもんですかね。まあ察してください” (rough tr. “I guess it’s something like, well-behaved kids have to be home by 10pm? Or something like that, please understand.”)

Then Take-chan said it would be tiring to spend 2 hours sitting down, so let’s all stand up and do some stretches. So…we all stood up. The whole theater. Take-chan was very shocked and very happy. (The lights also went from middling to fully on as everybody stood up, like the person doing the lights wasn’t sure either whether this should have audience lighting or not until everybody started standing up.) There was much laughter and much silliness as he guided us through stretches (one extra one because he was so happy we were all doing as he said that he asked if he could do it again). And then when he told us we could sit back down, he continued remarking with shock at the fact that EVERYBODY was standing. I was laughing so hard my eyes were tearing up, it was great.

As he bade us a reluctant farewell and returned backstage, he assured us that he would in fact be in act 2 as well. It was so fun.

Anyway, act 2.

I did NOT expect the story to go past volume 3 when I went the first time, so I was just in shock and awe that they acted out this whole story in under 3 hours.

I love Haruki spinning around stage happily sneaking photos of the sleeping Aki.

I love AkiHaru ribbing Ue throughout act 1–their synchronized 現代風のオシャンなギター！(that line about Ue’s guitar will be modern style contrasted to their Showa style) line that they give Ue just before that initial jam session was PERFECT. Aki’s 上ノ山のフォローよろ (that line about “you work on Uenoyama” just before he goes off to talk to Mafuyu) in Haruki’s ear was WOW.

But in act 2, of course, everything gets ramped up a notch, and OH.

I think I said after my first viewing, I didn’t really get the sense that Aki was so into Haruki in act 1, and I really felt the shift.

After my second viewing, I don’t think this is quite the case anymore.

Aki’s actor acts Aki’s attachment to Ugetsu SO WELL. It’s more like…Haruki is that not-quite-crush he has that he’ll never REALLY make a move on because he knows he’s taken.

It was heartbreaking.

Ugetsu and Aki’s attachment to each other was acted out to heartbreaking perfection.

The Akisame breakup scene, the second time I watched it, EVERYBODY around me was crying. It was all sniffles and people wiping their eyes.

An edit they did make was that after Akihiko delivers his “There’s no point telling you” line to Haruki during The Scene from vol 4, the scene goes on a little longer, Aki diving back down to resume what he’d started, making it abundantly clear, he did NOT stop.

They kept a lot more of the little moments than I’d expected, including the dragonfly. (Which was placed on the edge of the stage right in front of me the first time I watched it, which was amazing. And also how I know they ACTUALLY had a rubber dragonfly there, it was not mimed.)

Somehow, act 2 of the stage play felt a lot less rushed than the anime movie, even though they probably total out to about the same amount of time, and the stage play covered more terrain–they still had a lot of Ritsumafu interacting (though they did skip the fight about Ue’s jealousy), and the summer festival meeting with Shizuragi.

They kept the confession scene more or less the same as the manga, and ohhh it shot straight to my heart.

Aki’s hands were even shaking….which I know even though I was never at an angle where I could totally see this. The first time, I was at an angle where I couldn’t see his hands, but I saw his arms moving, and the way Haruki was looking down, and knew they were shaking. The second time, I was too far away, I could barely make out the shaking if I squinted. BUT THEY WERE SHAKING, and that’s what matters.

The live music was GREAT. They performed fully in character, it was astonishing. Mafuyu’s voice was audibly getting more tired as performances piled up, but the falsetto never suffered, nor did the emotion in his performances. In fact, the first time I saw the show, when Mafuyu sang, I got chills.

A friend gave me permission to buy stuff and forward them on (in addition to a DVD), so I bought a bunch of photos the second time around:

They are so cute!!! Haruki was perfect by the way. They even gave him different hairstyles throughout. (And of course he does go to Take-chan to cut his hair as in canon!)

Side note, a personal pet peeve of mine in the movie is that they reversed the order in which Take-chan sees Haruki and responds to Aki’s email, making his response a deliberate lie; in the stage play, they switched the order back in accordance with the manga, so Take-chan responds to Aki that no he hasn’t seen him, and then sees Haruki.

Take-chan playing with the Chashu Boys was fully mimed, unfortunately, but the actor played him SO WELL, you could get a sense from the way he played what kind of music he might be playing.

In summary, it was great. This is my favorite adaptation to date, second only to the manga.

Update: I did see the Given stage play for the second time. I will return tomorrow with a commentary more comprehensive than I am currently capable of.

Suffice to say, it was GREAT, but the best part was that they really wanted us out by 10pm–it was a 7pm showing, and this play runs at like 2:50 to 3:00 with intermission–so they had no intermission, and instead while they rearranged the stage, Take-chan came out to entertain us for 5 minutes. It was adorable and so funny, I was tearing up with laughter.

Also, today’s audience was FEELING Ugetsu. Everybody around me was crying–sniffles, wiping eyes–during the breakup scene. EVERYBODY AROUND ME. Oh, and I was tearing up too, I was no exception to the powerful Akisame feels.

Ugh, it is so great. I am devastated that it only runs for 4 days (although I am glad that Mafuyu’s vocal cords will at last get some rest!!! And that the actors will be free of the intense COVID scrutiny they are surely currently under)…….and also that there was no Take-chan goods, as far as I could see. We need more Take-chan!

I wanna see the Given play a second time.

YES, I ordered the DVD. YES, the first time I–by pure happy accident–had an AMAZING seat in the 2nd row–which was effectively the front row, as the 1st row was empty.

But there were some key things I noticed–

-During the phone call scene, Haruki comments on a woman’s voice that was not there (did someone miss a cue, or was this intended to be left to the imagination?)

-Haruki was looking down at Aki’s hands after he asked for permission to touch. Based on the way he was looking, and the minute movements of Aki’s arms, I know his hands were shaking. But, crucially, I was at an angle where I could not see his hands actually shake.

-During Yoru ga Akeru, I kept looking at Ugetsu, and there was a point at which a look of resigned realization dawned on his face, and I thought, OH, Haruki and Aki must have been looking at each other there. But I was not watching them enough, and I *desperately* wished for a rewind 5 seconds button on reality at that moment. (In retrospect, this is probably the moment when the seed of “hmmm but could I pay another 9000JPY to see it a second time?” was planted in my brain)

-I just generally wanna see it again. I really want.

I saw the Given stage play today.

Twas amazing.

Best adaptation of all, second only to the manga because that is the original.

Highlights:

-Every single actor was PERFECT. I don’t care what you think if you have not seen it, do not @ me.

-THEY ACTUALLY PERFORMED THE SONGS. In fact, most of the scenes where they play their instruments, they ACTUALLY PLAYED. Holy shit, these guys were good. (There were certain sections that were not played live–notably Ugetsu never actually plays the violin.)

-They managed to carry the story all the way through the end of vol. 5, and even went one scene further.

-As a side note to the above, I didn’t expect the stage play to go past vol. 3, which is probably why I was surprised to find myself encountering much shirtlessness. In related news, Akihiko and Ugetsu have nothing to be ashamed of, they are both very very muscular.

-They kept Shizu! Yay! They cut all the female characters instead, but the story did not suffer for it, imo.

-I felt chills the first time Mafuyu sang.

-I felt for Akihiko more than I ever have.

-Haruki is PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT.

-My heart broke for Ugetsu all over again.

-My heart broke for Aki all over again.

-This is the only version yet to keep the scene going after Aki gives his devastating retort to Haruki’s offer of anything at all, to make it abundantly clear what happened. It is GREAT, but also if you had asked me to guess in advance which version would choose to do this, I would not in a million years have guessed that it would be the stage play.

-Itaya’s actor was astonishingly good, it seems a shame that he was relegated to a side character.

I could not bear that I would only see this once, so I–believer in the philosophy of “more stuff equals more stress”–ordered a DVD. Apparently, the DVDs are supposed to ship in April.

If you can still attend a show, GO. REALLY, SERIOUSLY, GO SEE IT. If you cannot, GET THE RECORDING WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE.