YOKOHAMA, Japan — On any given night outside a theater in central Tokyo, hundreds of women can be found waiting in neat phalanxes, dressed in matching T-shirts or sporting identical colored handkerchiefs — the uniform of what may be the most rabidly loyal fans in Japanese entertainment.
日本横滨——不管哪个晚上，在东京市中心的一个剧院外，总有数百个女人排着整齐的方阵在等着，她们穿着同样的T恤或拿着颜色相同的手帕——她们可能是日本演艺圈最狂热、忠诚的粉丝。
The stars they’re hoping to glimpse are women, too, actresses who play both male and female roles in the 102-year-old Takarazuka Revue, an enduringly successful theater company that is bringing its gender-twisting take on the Broadway musical to the Lincoln Center Festival in New York from July 20 to 24.
她们期望瞻仰的明星也是女人：在有102年历史的宝冢歌剧团(Takarazuka Revue)同时饰演男性和女性角色的女演员们。这个长盛不衰的戏剧公司正把自己经过女扮男装风格改造的百老汇音乐剧带到纽约的林肯中心艺术节(Lincoln Center Festival)上，演出从7月20日持续至24日。
In Takarazuka’s “Chicago,” women play the sultry Velma and Roxie as well as the swaggering Billy Flynn and the hapless-schmoe Amos. The dialogue is in Japanese, but at a recent dress rehearsal here, the attitude and staging wereall-American, loyal to Bob Fosse’s vaudeville-inspired production, which has been running on Broadway for two decades.
在宝冢歌剧团的音乐剧《芝加哥》(Chicago)中，由女演员饰演性感迷人的韦尔玛(Velma)和罗克西(Roxie)、趾高气扬的比利·弗林(Billy Flynn)和不幸愚蠢的阿莫斯(Amos)。对白是日语，不过在最近一次在横滨进行的带妆彩排中，从风格到舞台布景完全是美国式的，忠于鲍勃·福斯(Bob Fosse)以轻歌舞剧为灵感的创作——该剧在百老汇已经演了20年。
In Japan, Takarazuka is a phenomenon that rarely tours outside the country.
宝冢歌剧团很少在日本之外演出。
Founded in 1914 by a railway company that hoped to lure travelers to a struggling hot spring resort outside Osaka, the group began with a handful of teenage singers and dancers and staged its first performances in a converted swimming pool. A century later, Takarazuka operates five sub-troupes and puts on 900 shows a year, in company-owned theaters in Tokyo and its original western Japanese base. Most of the shows sell out.
该剧团1914年由一个铁路公司创建，目的是吸引游客前往大阪郊外一个生意惨淡的温泉度假区。剧团最初由几位青少年歌手和舞者组成，最初的一些演出在改造后的游泳池进行。一个世纪后，宝冢歌剧团有五个演出组，每年举办900场演出，演出地点是该公司在东京及其日本西部发源地拥有的剧场里。大部分演出都是满座。
Cross-dressing, single-gender theater groups have a long history in Japan. This year’s Lincoln Center Festival also features the Kanze Noh Theater, whose stately, stylized dramas are older than Shakespeare and are performed exclusively by men. Kabuki — Noh’s somewhat newer, livelier cousin — was pioneered by all-female troupes, until a 17th-century public-morals crackdown put them out of business. Today, Kabuki, too, is all-male.
单性别变装剧团在日本有悠久的历史。今年参加林肯中心艺术节的还有观世能剧团(Kanze Noh Theater)，它恢宏、艺术化的戏剧比莎士比亚还悠久，而且全部由男性表演。歌舞伎是能剧的近亲，比能剧更新、更活泼。歌舞伎由全女性剧团开创，直到17世纪的一场公共道德清洗把女人排除到这个行业之外。如今，歌舞伎也全是由男性出演。
On the surface, Takarazuka looks like a rebellion against such classical Japanese art forms. Its touchstones are modern and Western — Parisian cabaret, Radio City-style variety shows and, since the 1960s, Broadway. The railway executive who founded the company is said to have banned Japanese musical instruments from its backing orchestra, fearful of a lingering public association between geisha and other traditional female performers and prostitution.
表面上看，宝冢是对这种日本传统艺术形式的反叛。它的根基是现代的、西方的——巴黎的卡巴莱歌舞，无线电城(Radio City)风格的综艺表演，以及从20世纪60年代开始引入的百老汇风格。据说，创立该公司的铁路公司高管禁止剧团的管弦乐队使用日本乐器，以免观众依然把她们与艺妓、其他传统女性演员或妓女联系在一起。
Yet in many ways, Takarazuka could not be more Japanese. Training is rigorous and the troupes are strictly hierarchical, with designated “top stars” and ranks of junior performers. Rules are strict and extend beyond the stage: Members are not allowed to marry and often “retire” in their late 20s or early 30s. The most popular make the transition to mainstream acting or singing careers.
但是，从很多方面讲，宝冢也具有浓重的日本特色。它训练严格，等级森严，明确划分“主演男役/娘役”和各个级别的初级演员。严格的规矩还延伸至舞台之外：剧团成员不能结婚，往往在30岁左右就“退休”。最受欢迎的演员转向主流表演或歌唱事业。
“You can’t have fans imagining you changing diapers,” said Saori Mine, a veteran Takarazuka actress who plays the amoral lawyer Billy in “Chicago,” explaining the injunction against marriage.
“你不能让粉丝们想像你给孩子换尿布的情形，”宝冢出身的女演员峰佐绪理（Saori Mine，音）在解释剧团禁止结婚的规定时说，她在在《芝加哥》中饰演道德败坏的律师比利。
For all its flapper-era razzle-dazzle, “Chicago” is morally darker and more satirical than most Takarazuka fare. The company usually favors more earnest stories about gallant heroes and pure-hearted maidens, its upended casting put to the service of the most conventional kind of sex roles. Irony is not part of the mix.
《芝加哥》尽管具有摩登女郎时代的欢闹，但在道德上比宝冢的大部分剧目更阴暗，更具讽刺性。该公司通常青睐关于勇敢英雄和纯洁少女的真诚故事，它女扮男装的选角方式更适合最传统的性别角色。讽刺不是它的特长。
“Takarazuka is bright and glamorous; ‘Chicago’ is dark, black,” said Yoka Wao, who plays the vaudevillian-turned-murderess Velma Kelly. (That’s the role that won Catherine Zeta-Jones an Oscar for the movie version.) “There are lines in ‘Chicago’ that we would never normally say. You have to put humility aside and remember that these characters are living for themselves.”
“宝冢的剧目通常欢快迷人；《芝加哥》则阴郁黑暗，”饰演轻歌舞剧演员出身的杀人犯韦尔玛·凯利（Velma Kelly，凯瑟琳·泽塔-琼斯[Catherine Zeta-Jones]凭借电影版中这个角色获得奥斯卡奖）的和央叶华(Yoka Wao)说。“《芝加哥》中的一些台词是我们在正常情况下永远都不会说的。你必须收起谦逊的作风，记住这些角色是在为自己而活。”
Despite its Western trappings, Takarazuka draws on “ideas of purity that are very primitively Japanese,” Akio Miki, a veteran Takarazuka director, said. They show up in its productions and in the way the company — whose official motto is “modesty, fairness, grace” — regulates its performers’ private lives.
宝冢的资深导演三木章雄(Akio Miki)说，尽管宝冢表面上看具有西方色彩，但它借鉴“日本传统的纯洁观念”。这些观念反映在它的剧目以及公司对演员私生活的管理上。该公司的官方座右铭是“清、正、美”。
“Chicago” is a rare Takarazuka show without a dreamy male hero. An all-female theater company might be counted on to lay bare men’s flaws and follies onstage, but at Takarazuka the approach is gentler. Its shows depict men not as they are, Miki said, but as they ought to be.
《芝加哥》是宝冢剧目中非常罕见的没有梦幻般男主角的剧目。一个全由女性组成的剧团可能要依靠在舞台上揭露男人的缺点和愚蠢，不过宝冢的方式更温和。三木章雄说，它的剧目展现的不是男人的真实面貌，而是应有的面貌。
“It’s an idealized male image, seen through women’s eyes: The heroes are more romantic, more divine,” he said. “They don’t tend to lie or cheat. It’s what the audience would like from men but doesn’t usually get in reality.”
“它是女性眼中理想化的男人形象：更浪漫、更崇高，”他说，“他们通常不会撒谎或欺骗。他们是观众想要的、但在现实中往往遇不到的男人。”