Abstract
The Takarazuka Revue is an all-female music theatre company founded over a century ago. It is an important institution in Japanese culture and has garnered quite a lot of scholarly attention, but only rarely from a Theatre Studies perspective. This article draws on Azuma Sonoko’s model for analyzing how onstage and offstage levels overlap and interact in the Takarazuka Revue. I challenge Azuma’s emphasis on female homosociality as the most important appeal for fans with discussions of a number of musicals and revue scenes portraying male homoeroticism. I argue that female homoeroticism between performers is deliberately invoked through male homoerotic themes, as part of fan service. The article offers rare close readings of original works and discusses the styles of several in-house writer-directors and choreographers. It also traces a shift over time towards more explicit and frequent portrayals of male homoeroticism on the Takarazuka Revue stage.
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